FREDERICK  DOUGLASS 


,,•;;;  ;,;,;,,.,:,:,,, 

THE  NEGRO 
IN  OUR  HISTORY 


BY 


CARTEE  G.  WOODSON,  Ph.D. 

Editor  of  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  author  of  The  Education 

of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration, 

and  of  The  History  of  the  Negro  Church 


THE  ASSOCIATED  PUBLISHERS,  INC. 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


Copyright,  1922 
By  THE  ASSOCIATED  PUBLISHEBS 


To 

MY  BROTHER 
ROBERT  HENRY  WOODSON 


PREFACE 

THIS  book  was  written  five  years  ago  and  would  have 
been  published  at  that  time,  had  not  the  high  cost  of  print 
ing  during  the  World  War  rendered  its  manufacture  too 
expensive.  A  few  pages  have  been  added  to  bring  the  work 
nearer  to  the  present  date,  but  the  leading  facts  as  set  forth 
herein  appear  as  they  were  originally  written. 

The  purpose  in  writing  this  book  was  to  present  to  the 
average  reader  in  succinct  form  the  history  of  the  United 
States  as  it  has  been  influenced  by  the  presence  of  the  Negro 
in  this  country.  The  aim  here  is  to  supply  also  the  need  of 
schools  long  since  desiring,  such  a  work  in  handy  form  with 
adequate  references  for  those  stimulated  to  more  advanced 
study. 

In  this  condensed  form  certain  situations  and  questions 
could  not  be  adequately  discussed,  and  in  endeavoring  thus 
to  tell  the  story  the  author  may  have  left  unsaid  what 
others  consider  more  important.  Practically  all  phases  of 
Negro  life  and  history  have  been  treated  in  their  various 
ramifications,  however,  to  demonstrate  how  the  Negro  has 
been  influenced  by  contact  with  the  Caucasian  and  to  em 
phasize  what  the  former  has  contributed  to  civilization. 

The  author  is  indebted  to  Mr.  David  A.  Lane,  Jr.,  who 
kindly  assisted  him  in  reading  the  entire  proof. 

CARTER  G.  WOODSON. 

Washington,  D.  C. 
April,  1922. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     THE  NEGRO  IN  AFRICA 1 

II.     THE  NEGRO  ENSLAVED 15 

III.  SLAVERY  IN  ITS  MILD  FORM    .....  34 

x^iV.  THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN    .      .  51 

V.     REACTION 71 

VI.  A  DECLINING  ANTISLAVERY  MOVEMENT  .      .  86 

.     ECONOMIC  SLAVERY 99 

.     THE  FREE  NEGRO 124 

IX.    BLAZING  THE  WAY 138 

X.     COLONIZATION 153 

XI.     ABOLITION 169 

XII.     FURTHER  PROTEST 182 

XIII.  SLAVERY  AND  THE  CONSTITUTION  ....  195 

XIV.  THE  IRREPRESSIBLE  CONFLICT       ....  208 
XV.  THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  CIVIL  WAR     ....  221 

XVI.     THE  RECONSTRUCTION 239 

XVII.     FINDING  A  WAY  OF  ESCAPE 260 

XVIII.     ACHIEVEMENTS  IN  FREEDOM 280 

XIX.  THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR  ....  305 

XX.  THE  NEGRO  AND  SOCIAL  JUSTICE  ....  329 

APPENDIX 243 

INDEX      .      .      .  373 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIONS 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS Frontispiece 

PAGE 

AN  AFRICAN  YOUTH     . 

WAGING  WAR  TO  SUPPLY  THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE  TRADE 

SLAVERY  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS    .      .  7 

AN  AFRICAN  KING  AND  COUNCIL  9 

GUSTAVUS  VASA 13 

AN  AFRICAN  SLAVE  MARKET 17 

INSPECTING  A  NEGRO  CAPTIVE     ....  20 
BRANDING  A  NEGRO  WOMAN  SLAVE  . 

THE  FAITHFUL  SLAVE        ...  26 

THE  DASH  FOR  LIBERTY   ...  35 

AN  ADVERTISEMENT  OF  A  RUNAWAY  SLAVE  37 

GRANVILLE   SHARP         .      .  38 

Attorney  for  the  Slave  in  the  Somerset  Case. 

THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  A  RUNAWAY  SLAVE 45 

ENTERTAINMENT 48 

THE  DEATH  OF  CRISPUS  ATTUCKS  IN  THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE  .       59 

PETER  SALEM  AT  BUNKER  HILL 61 

LEMUEL  HAYNES •  63 

A  Negro  Soldier  in  the  American  Revolution  and  later  a 

distinguished  Congregational  preacher  to  white  people  in 

New  England. 
FACSIMILE  OF  AN  HONORABLE  DISCHARGE  OF  A  NEGRO  SOLDIER 

FROM  WASHINGTON'S  ARMY <>4 

PHYLLIS  WHEATLEY 6-s 

BENJAMIN  BANNEKER'S  ALMANAC 69 

TOUSSAINT  L'OUVERTURE  ...  72 

The  Liberator  of  Haiti. 
BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN   . 74 

An  Advocate  of  Freedom. 


xii  Illustrations 

PAGE 

RICHARD  ALLEN 78 

The  Founder  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Ax  EARLY  COTTON  GIN 71) 

ANOTHER  SORT  OF  SLAVERY 83 

THOMAS   JEFFERSON 90 

An  Antislavery  Reformer. 

THE  NEGRO  CALLS  A  HALT !>2 

NAT   TURNER !>4 

THE  MOTHER  AND  CHILD '•><> 

JOSIAH   HEN  SON 101 

Prototype  of  Uncle  Totn's  Cabin. 

A  SLAVE  AUCTION 103 

A  PLANTATION 106 

RILLIEUX'S  EVAPORATING  PAN     ....  110 

THE  PURSUIT  OF  A  SLAVE 

HARRIETT  TUBMAN  .      . 

NEW  YORK  AFRICAN  FREE  SCHOOL  Xo.  2 135 

Built  a  century  ago. 
FREEDOM'S  JOURNAL     .      .      .  1;>~ 

A  Negro  Newspaper  edited  a  century  ago. 
EMLEN  INSTITUTE 

A   Secondary    School   in   Mercer    County,    Ohio,    admitting 

Negroes  in  1842. 
ELLEN  CRAFT     . 

A  Fugitive  disguised  as  her  Master. 
WILLIAM  STILL       .      . 

An  Agent  of  the  Underground  Railroad, 
MYRTILLA  MINER     . 

A  missionary  Teacher  of  Negroes. 
DR.  J.  McCuNE  SMITH 
FREE  NEGROES  IN  THE  CRISIS 
WILLIAM  WELLS  BROWN 
ALEXANDER   CRUMMELL 
HENRY  HIGHLAND  GARNETT 
J.  W.  C.  PEXNINGTON 
SAMUEL  R.  WARD   . 
HARRIETT  BEECHER  STOWE 
PAUL  CUFFE 

The  first  actual  Colonizer. 


Illustrations  xiii 

PAGE 

LOTT  CABY 158 

JOHN  B.  RUSSWUBM 160 

ROBERT   PURVIS        .      .  162 

WILLIAM   WILBEBFOBCE 165 

MARTIN  R.  DELANEY 167 

An  Author,  Physician,  and  Leader  before  the  Civil  War. 

WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON 170 

LEWIS   TAPPAN 171 

WENDELL    PHILLIPS 172 

ANTISLAVEBY   APOSTLES 173 

PBUDENCE   CBANDALL 175 

A  Martyr  in  the  uplift  of  the  Negro. 

LUNSFOBD  LANE 176 

A  Native  of  North   Carolina,   who   lectured    in   the   North 

against  slavery. 

LUCBETIA  MOTT 177 

CHABLES  LENOX  REMOND 178 

SOJOUBNEB  TBUTH 17!) 

FBEDEEICK  DOUGLASS 180 

SOUTHERN   ABOLITIONISTS 183 

GERBIT  SMITH 185 

WHITE  MABTYBS  IN  THE  CAUSE  or  ABOLITION     ...  180 

SENATOB  JOHN  P.  HALE 103 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 106 

The  Champion  of  Free  Speech. 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUX 100 

JOSHUA  R.  GIDDINGS 200 

FBIENDS  OF  THE  FUGITIVES     .      .  201 

WILLIAM  H.  SEWABD 202 

PBOMOTEBS  OF  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD 204 

JOSEPH   CINQUE       ....  200 

CHARLES  SUMNEB 210 

HENBY  WABD  BEECHEB 214 

A  Champion  of  Freedom. 

BENJAMIN  F.  WADE 210 

The  Defier  of  the  Secessionists. 

JOHN  BBOWN 220 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN                                                                            .  222 


xiv  Illustrations 

PAGE 

XEGROES  ix  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  CONFEDERATES   ....  224 

U.   S.   GRANT 225 

FACSIMILE   OF   THE    ORIGINAL    DRAFT    OF   THE    EMANCIPATION 

PROCLAMATION        .      .    .. 231 

ROBERT  COULD  SHAM' 233 

Leading  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  Regiment. 

COL.  T.  YV.  HIGGINSON 235 

A  Commander  of  Negro  Troops. 

TEACHING  THE  FREEDMEN 241 

SOME  FACTORS  IN  THE  RECONSTRUCTION 243 

GENERAL  0.  0.  HOWARD 246 

JOHN  M.  LANGSTON 247 

JOHN   R.   LYNCH 248 

A  Member  of  Congress. 

PI.  R.  REVELS 249 

United  States  Senator  from  Mississippi. 

SOME  NEGRO  CONGRESSMEN 250 

B.  K.  BRUCE 251 

United  States  Senator  from  Mississippi. 

JOSEPH  H.  RAINEY 252 

A  Member  of  Congress. 

JAMES  T.  RAPIER 253 

A  Member  of  Congress. 

P.  B.  S.  PIXCHBACK 254 

Acting  Governor  of  Louisiana. 

THE  NEW  FREEDOM 257 

The  first  mixed  jury  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

R.  T.  GREENER 264 

JOSEPH  C.  PRICE 266 

KELLY  MILLER 267 

BISHOP  IT.  M.  TURNER 260 

A  fearless  Spokesman  for  his  People. 

BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON' 27f> 

\V.   ]-].  B.  DuBois .     . 276 

OSWALD  GARRISON  VILLARD 277 

MOORFIELD  STOREY,  A  FRIEND  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 27S 

President  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Colored  People. 


Illustrations  xv 

PAGE 

A  NEGRO  COUNTRY  SEAT  .  282 

The  Home  of  Scott  Bond. 

THE  RESIDENCE  OF  MADAME  C.  J.  WALKER     ....  283 

JULIUS   ROSEXWALD 

ANDREW  CARNEGIE 

JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER  AND  HIS  Sox      .      .  290 

ROBERT  RUSSA  MOTOX       ...  291 

MATZELIGER'S  LASTING  MACHINE     .      .      .  295 

GRANVILLE  T.  WOODS   .      .  297 

H.  0.  TANNER'S  Christ  and  Nicodamts       .      .  300 

PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR 

A  RESULT  OF  THE  MIGRATION      .      .      . 

A  Negro  Teacher  with  Pupils  of  both  Races. 

COLONEL   CHARLES   YOUNG      .      .      •  317 

THE  NEW  YORK  FIFTEENTH  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR 

MAJOR  JOEL  E.  SPINGARN      .      .  324 

An  enemy  of  prejudice  in  the  Army. 

FIRST  SEPARATE  BATTALION  OF  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA  32(» 

Receiving  the  Croix  de  Guerre  in  France. 

JAMES  WELDON  JOHNSON       .      . 

Secretary   of   the   National   Association    for   the   Advance 
ment  of  Colored  People. 

Miss  MARY  WHITE  OVIXGTON     . 

Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  National  Asso 
ciation  for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People. 

DR.  FRANCIS  J.  GRIMKE    . 

A  Preacher  of  the  New  Democracy. 
ARCHIBALD  H.  GRIMKE      . 

"A  Defender  of  his  People." 

MAPS 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  POPULATION  IN  1860  .      .      .     218 
PERCENTAGE  NEGRO  IN  THE  POPULATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

BY  COUNTIES,  1910 :«)8-300 


THE  NEGRO  IN  OUR  HISTORY 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  NEGRO   IN   AFRICA 

THE  ease  with  which  the  Negro  thrives  in  centers  of 
modern  civilization,  in  contradistinction  to  the  destructive 
effect  of  this  influence  on  the  belated  peoples  like  the 
Indians,  has  evoked  admiration  and  comment.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  treatment  of  the  role  played  The  cuiture 
by  the  Negro  in  our  history,  then,  it  may  be  of  Negroes, 
well  briefly  to  examine  the  situation  in  Africa  with  a  view 
to  determining  exactly  what  accounts  for  the  facility  with 
which  the  culture  of  the  Negroes  brought  to  Europe  and 
America  has.  so  easily  fused  with  the  culture  generally 
known  as  that  of  the  white  man.  Has  the  culture  of  the 
Negro  anything  in  common  with  that  of  the  western  na 
tions,  or  is  the  Negro  merely  imitative,  as  is  often  asserted 
by  many  writers  ?  Since  most  historians  in  this  field  know 
practically  nothing  about  the  Negroes  in  Africa  prior  to 
their  enslavement,  it  will  be  profitable  to  give  their  situa 
tion  in  that  land  at  least  a  cursory  examination.1 

In  considering  the  forces  effective  in  making  the  civiliza 
tion  of  Africa  it  is  well  to  note  that  although  it  is  the  second 
continent  in  size,  it  has  such  few  inlets  that  it  has  the 

i  For  more  extensive  treatment  see  W.  Z.  Ripley's  Races  of  Europe, 
J.  Deniker's  Races  of  Men,  J.  Finot's  Race  Prejudice,  F.  Ratzel's  The 
History  of  Mankind,  Franz  Boas's  The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man, 
Spiller's  Inter-Racial  Problems,  C.  Bucher's  Industrial  Revolution, 
Casely  Hayford's  Ethiopia  Unbound  and  his  Native  Institutions, 
James  Bryce's  Impressions  of  South  Africa,  Leo  Frobenius's  The 
Voice  of  Africa,  and  G.  Sergi's  The  Mediterranean  Race. 

1 


'.'•!•*  it. 

2  1-he'  Negro  In  Our  History 


shortest  coast-line  of  all.     Some  historians  will  therefore 
inform  us  that  owing  to  this  lack  of  good  harbors  Africa 


Physiographic  ^as  no^  ^ia(^'  through  commerce,  sufficient  con- 
features  of  tact  with  the  outer  world  to  keep  its  civiliza- 
Africa. 


j.jon  abreast  wjth  that  of  other  continents. 
Although  Africa  has  valuable  land,  it  suffers  from  the  han 
dicap  of  being  in  the  main 
a  high  elevated  table 
land  with  rapids  and  falls 
rendering  difficult  the  ap 
proach  from  the  outer 
world ;  and  the  four  great 
rivers,  the  Zambezi,  the 
Niger,  the  Congo,  and  the 
Nile,  are  not  sufficient  to 
furnish  facilities  for 
transportation  even  in  the 
interior.  Africa  lies  in 
that  part  of  the  tropical 
world  where,  because  of 
its  peculiar  location  with 
reference  to  the  directions 
of  the  winds,  the  climate 
is  unusually  warm  and 
dry  except  in  the  region 
drained  by  the  Congo, 
where  the  abundant  rainfall  produces  conditions  very  much 
like  those  in  other  parts  of  the  torrid  zone. 

Because  of  these  peculiar  geographic  conditions  there 
exist  various  civilizations  determined  largely  by  the  areas 
in  which  they  have  developed.  For  general  purposes 
Africa  may  be  divided  into  three  zones.  Stretching  from 
African  a  little  above  the  equator  to  the  south  of  that 

civilizations,     circle  is  the  region   of  the  heaviest   rainfall 
and   consequently   the  most   abundant   vegetation.     There 


AN  AFRICAN  YOUTH 


The  Negro  In  Africa 


may  be  found  swelling  streams  flowing  through  forests 
teeming  with  animals,  natural  crops,  and  an  abundance  of 
fruits  serving  as  food  for  men,  who  on  that  account  have 
no  struggle  for  life.  Above  and  below  this  zone  are  two 
others  of  less  rainfall  and  consequently  less  vegetation. 
There  it  is  necessary  for  man  to  cultivate  the  fields  in 
order  to  make  a  living.  Still  farther  beyond  the  limits  of 


WAGING  WAR  TO  SUPPLY  THE  AFRICAN   SLAVE  TRADE 

the  last  named  zones  are  areas  of  much  less  and,  in  the 
North,  of  practically  no  vegetation  on  account  of  the  lack 
of  rain.  In  those  sections  man  must  earn  a  living  by  pas 
turing  cattle  and  the  like.2 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  since  environment  is  the 
great  factor  in  the  making  of  a  people,  various  civiliza 
tions  have  sprung  up  in  these  respective  zones.  Those  who 

2  This  has  been  discussed  by  Jerome  Dowd  in  The  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1-16. 


4  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

have  lived  under  the  equator  where  there  is  no  struggle  for 
life  have  not  made  much  advancement.  In  that  section  it 
Environment  has  not  been  possible  for  necessity  to  become 
as  a  factor.  ^Q  mother  of  invention.  Those  living  in  the 
areas  requiring  cultivation  of  the  soil  have  made  most  prog 
ress.  It  has  been  necessary  for  them  to  bring  under  their 
control  certain  forces  of  nature  to  increase  the  food  sup 
ply  which  nature  in  that  zone  niggardly  yields.  The  dwell 
ers  in  the  arid  regions  are  handicapped  by  being  restricted 
to  merely  one  industry  from  which  returns  are  obtained 
with  increasing  difficulty.  While  under  such  circumstances 
the  achievements  of  the  people  may  in  one  or  two  respects 
reach  a  high  stage,  they  must  remain  a  backward  stock  for 
lack  of  proper  environment  and  opportunity. 

This  situation  throws  much  light  on  slavery  and  its  con 
comitants  in  Africa.  As  there  is-  not  very  much  of  an 
effort  to  earn  a  living  in  the  region  under  the  equator, 
slavery  in  that  section  seldom  extends  beyond  that  of 
women  who  are  usually  attached  to  men  as  wives.  A  man 
Slavery  in  in  need  of  labor  purchases  additional  wives 
Africa.  to  supply  that  need,  and  a  wife  is  usually 

worth  so  many  cows.  As  very  few  slaves  are  required  and 
there  is  often  a  scarcity  of  meats,  cannibalism  is  practiced, 
as*  the  taste  of  human  flesh  does  not  differ  materially  from 
that  of  other  animals.  In  the  case  of  wars,  therefore,  when 
captives  are  taken  they  can  be  easily  disposed  of  by  sale, 
for  the  reason  that  they  are  not  needed  in  the  economy  of 
the  country. 

In  the  zone  farther  north  there  is  an  urgent  need  for 
the  labor  of  slaves,  A  living  is  obtained  there  with 
more  difficulty  than  in  the  equatorial  zone,  and  the  effort 
on  the  part  of  one  to  shift  arduous  labor  to  the  shoulders 
of  another  results  in  the  enslavement  of  the  weak  to  do  the 
work  of  the  strong.  In  the  arid  zone  a  slave  class  is  not 
considered  indispensable,  since  it  cannot  easily  maintain 


The  Negro  In  Africa  5 

itself  there  and  at  the  same  time  support  superiors.  As  all 
of  the  population  must  work,  free  rather  than  slave  labor 
is  the  rule. 

The  people  of  Africa  inhabiting  these  various  zones  are 
commonly  known  as  the  black  race,  but  because  of  climatic 
differences  men  in  these  parts  have  become  widely  dif 
ferent  from  each  other.  The  records  of  archeologists  indi 
cate  that  the  primitive  African  was  not  neces-  African 
sarily  black,  but  of  an  Asiatic  type  of  Ne-  peoples, 
groid  features.3  There  are  certain  records  which  lead 
to  the  conclusion  that  at  one  time  the  peoples  of  Africa  were 
largely  of  the  mulatto  type,  and  today  the  natives  of 
Africa  are  not  generally  black  but  exhibit  in  their  racial 
characteristics  all  of  the  divergencies  found  among  the 
people  of  color  in  the  United  States.  There  are  in  the  main 
such  types  as  the  small  primitive  stock,  the  larger  forest 
Negro  in  the  center  and  on  the  west  coast,  and  the  tall 
blacks  in  the  Sudan. 

There  seems  to  have  been  a  movement  of  peoples  and  of 
civilizations  from  Asia  into  Egypt  and  from  Egypt  up  the 
Nile  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  and  again  from  Egypt  west 
ward  to  the  Atlantic  near  the  Gulf  of  Guinea.        The  move. 
There  was,  too,  a  backward  movement  from        merits  of 
the  West  to  the   East  causing  a  conflict,  a 
fusion,  and  a  destruction  of  cultures.     Out  of  this  chaos 
developed  the  Bantu,  calling  themselves  the  people,  a  war 
like  nation  which  imposed  its  sway  and  language  on  all 
of  Southern  Africa  extending  from  the  Gulf  of  Guinea. 

In  the  north  the  controlling  forces  centered   for  some 

s  For  a  discussion  of  African  races  see  The  Atlanta  University 
Publications,  No.  20;  Select  Discussions  of  Race  Problem.  More  de 
tailed  information  may  be  obtained  from  G.  Spiller's  Papers  on 
Inter-Racial  Problems;  The  American  Journal  of  Anatomy,  Vol. 
IX,  pp.  156-159;  Science  N.  S.,  Vol.  XXXI,  pp.  171-186;  Thomas's 
Source  Book  for  Social  Origins,  pp.  156-169;  The  Journal  of  Race  De 
velopment,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  pp.  482-500;  and  Boas's  The  Mind  of  the 
Primitive  Man,  pp.  251-278. 


6  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

centuries  in  Egypt,  which,  although  commonly  regarded  as 
a  country  of  Asiatic  civilization,  was,  like  other  parts  of 
Egypt  and  Africa,  molded  in  this  crucible  of  cultures, 
the  North.  j^  was  ^}ie  jan(j  Of  mixeci  breeds  or  persons 

comparable  to  Negroes  passing  in  this  country  as  people 
of  color.  When  these  people  were  in  ascendance,  the  great 
nations  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  like  the  Greeks,  the 
Italians,  and  Carthaginians,  came  into  contact  with  them 
and  were  thereby  influenced  to  the  extent  that  investiga 
tors  contend  that  the  civilizations  of  southern  Europe 
had  African  rather  than  European  origin.4  These  civili 
zations,  however,  did  not  endure. 

It  will  no  doubt  be  interesting,  therefore,  to  trace  briefly 
the  rise  and  fall  of  some  of  these  empires.5  The  highest 
of  these  civilizations  centered  in  the  Nile  region,  with 
Ethiopia  around  the  head  waters  of  that  river  and  Egypt 
The  rise  of  along  the  lower.  The  people  of  this  country 
empires.  were  mixed  breeds,  as  evidenced  by  their  mon 

uments  exhibiting  Negro  and  mulatto  faces.  At  least  one- 
third  of  the  Egyptians  were  distinctly  black.  History  seems 
to  indicate  that  the  country  was  first  settled  by  a  Negro 
tribe  that  mingled  later  with  the  Mediterranean  people 
coming  from  the  North.  Through  this  process  a  large 
number  of  Negroes  went  into  Greece  and  even  into  Italy, 
where  they  influenced  civilization  not  as  slaves  but  as  per 
sons  rising  to  positions  of  usefulness.  As  such,  Egypt*  once 
led  the  world  in  culture.  " Egypt,"  says  Chamberlain, 
"  acted  as  a  channel  by  which  the  genius  of  Negroland 
was  drafted  off  into  the  service  of  Mediterranean  and 
Asiatic  culture. ' ' 

Ethiopia  and  Egypt  were  at  first  united,  but  in  the 
course  of  time  separated  as  two  distinct  empires.  There 

4  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  II,  p.  331. 

5  The  rise  of  those  empires  is  treated  in  Felix  DuBois's  Timbuctoo 
the  Mysterious,  and  in  F.  L.  S.  Lugard's  Tropical  Dependency. 


The  Negro  In  Africa  7 

were  various  wars  between  the  Egyptians  and  the  Ethio 
pians  when  the  former  was  trying  to  wrest  the  country  from 
the  invaders  of  the  north.     At  no  time,  how-  Ethiopia  and 
ever,  did  the  Negroes  fail  to  figure  conspicu-  E&yp*« 
ously  in  the  civilization  of  Egypt,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 


SLAVERY  AMONG  THE  AACIE.NTS 

that  full-blooded  Negroes  like  Ha  Nehesi  and  Nefertari  sat 
on  the  Egyptian  throne,  and  that  many  other  of  its  rulers 
were  of  decidedly  Negroid  features.  The  affairs  of  the 
Ethiopian  and  Egyptian  empires  did  not  seem  to  become 


8  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

separate  until  during  the  middle  empire  of  Egypt,  when 
Nepata  and  Meroe  became  centers  of  a  largely  native 
civilization.  The  new  empire,  however,  continued  its  wars 
against  the  Ethiopians  and  gradually  incorporated  the 
country,  until  Ethiopia  finally  became  subject  to  that  land. 
In  the  course  of  time,  however,  Ethiopia  asserted  itself, 
easily  overran  Egypt,  and  appointed  a  son  of  the  king  of 
Ethiopia  to  rule  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs. 

The  Negro  was  then  at  his  best  as  a  constituent  factor 
in  the  affairs  of  the  Egypto-Ethiopian  empire.  When, 
however,  the  country  was  conquered  by  the  Assyrians  and 
then  by  the  Persians,  Egypt  became  subject  to  the  in- 
The  Negro  vaders  from  Asia,  whereas  Ethiopia  continued 
in  the  empire.  fts  wav<  Ethiopia  was  again  invaded  by  a 
Greek  influence  from  the  East  and  the  influences  of  the 
tribes  from  the  Sudan  on  the  West,  but  the  Ethiopian 
language  and  government  tended  to  endure.  Ethiopians 
persistently  gave  trouble  to  the  Romans,  who  undertook 
to  subdue  them  and  failed  thoroughly  to  do  so  because 
of  their  interior  position.  This  country  lay  asleep  during 
the  Middle  Ages.  In  later  years  it  became  known  as  Nubia, 
and  finally  as  Abyssinia,  after  having  experienced  various 
conquests  and  subjugations  resulting  in  changes  which 
have  not  yet  succeeded  in  blotting  out  altogether  its  ancient 
civilization. 

With  the  exception  of  what  the  historian  Herodotus  has 
left  in  fragmentary  form,  not  much  is  known  about  the 
early  nations  established  on  the  Niger  or  the  Sudan.  They 
Sudan  and  are  connected  in  history  with  Ethiopia  and 
the  Niger.  Egypt  as  a  center  of  culture  distinctly  Afri 
can,  as  evidenced  by  the  figures  of  Sherbro  and  the  mega 
liths  of  Gambia.  The  first  actual  history  dates  from  the  ap 
proach  of  the  Mohammedans  about  the  year  1000.  The 
Mohammedans  came  largely  as  traders  and  gave  much 
stimulus  to  the  rise  of  commerce  among  these  people,  not 


The  Negro  In  Africa 


9 


utterly  changing  the  civilization  but  decidedly  influencing 
the  life  and  history  of  the  people.  Drawing  no  color 
line,  these  Arabs  blended  readily  with  the  Negroes  and  gave 
rise  to  the  prominence  of  certain  Arabised  blacks  repre 
sented  by  Antar,  who  in  Arabia  became  the  national  hero 
and  one  of  the  great  poets  of  Islam.  Carrying  their  civiliza 
tion  later  into  Spain,  the  Africans  attained  distinction  there 
also,  for  a  Negro  poet  resided  at  Seville  and  in  1757  a 
Negro  founded  a  town  in  lower  Morocco. 


AN  AFRICAN  KING  AND  COUNCIL 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  Moslems  found  in  the  west 
the  far  advanced  kingdom  of  Ghana,  which  they  conquered 
after  much  resistance  of  the  natives,  who  had  an  army  of  two 
hundred  thousand  men  and  sufficient  wealth  The  Kingdom 
to  support  it.  When  this  kingdom  declined  of  G-hana. 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  Melle  superseded  it  and  added 
greatly  to  its  wealth  by  the  expansion  of  its  commerce 
through  welcoming  the  Mohammedan  traders.  They  found 


10  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

evidence  of  advanced  civilizations  even  in  the  Congo,  and 
learned  that  the  Zulu  chiefs,  whose  armies  swept  south 
eastern  Africa,  exhibited  unusual  power  of  military 
organization. 

Among  the  cities  where  this  exceptional  culture  was  dis 
covered  was  that  of  Jenne,  from  which  the  modern  name 
Guinea  has  been  obtained.  This  city  experienced,  as  usual, 
The  State  migrations  and  movements  frequent  in  other 
of  Jenne.  parts  of  Africa,  destroying  many  of  the  evi 
dences  of  civilization.  But  according  to  Frobenius,  the 
traveler  observed  an  advanced  culture  in  their  terra-cotta 
industry,  in  their  achievements  in  clay  and  stone  and  iron, 
in  their  glass  beads,  earthen  and  glassware,  and  in  the  dex 
terity  of  their  weaving.  This  civilization  shows  the  city 
group  like  that  around  Timbuctu  and  Hausa.  These  cities 
had  a  government  largely  like  that  of  an  autonomy  of 
Timbuctu.  modern  times — what  we  would  call  the  social 
and  industrial  state,  but  of  an  essentially  democratic 
order.  These  achievements  so  impressed  the  world 
that  in  keeping  with  other  claims  based  on  prejudice, 
white  men  have  undertaken  to  accredit  whites  with  this 
culture. 

There  developed  also  the  states  commonly  known  as  the 
Ashanti  and  Dahomey,6  which,  because  of  their  orgies  of 
war  and  sacrifice  of  human  beings  exhibited  a  striking 
contrast  to  the  city  democracy  of  ''elevated  religious  ideas, 
Ashanti  and  organized  industry,  and  noble  art."  So  far 
Dahomey.  ^  known,  however,  the  white  race  has  not  yet 
made  a  strenuous  effort  to  prove  that  this  civilization  was 
Caucasian,  doubtless  for  the  reason  that  these  very  back 
ward  conditions  rendered  the  country  so  weak  that  it 
finally  developed  into  a  region  of  internecine  wars  which 

a  The  cruelty  practiced  in  Dahomey  is  evident  from  a  speech  of  the 
king  of  that  country,  found  in  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol. 
I,  p.  65. 


The  Negro  In  Africa  11 

paved  the  way  for  the  lucrative  slave  trade  carried  on  by 
the  Christian  nations. 

In  the  regions  of  the  great  lakes  flourished  other  centers 
of  civilization.  There,  evidences  of  culture  and  the  mining 
of  silver  and  gold  and  trade  in  precious  stones  appeared. 
These  Africans  were  the  first  to  smelt  iron  and  to  use  it 
as  the  great  leverage  of  civilization  by  which  the  world  has 
been  enabled  to  accomplish  its  wonders  in  modern  times. 
They 'had  useful  iron  implements,  erected  well-constructed 
buildings  and  fortifications,  made  beautiful  pottery,  and 
worked  extensively  in  the  precious  metals.  As  indicated 
by  their  utensils  and  implements,  they  had  made  much 
more  advancement  in  religion  than  some  of  the  other  tribes, 
inasmuch  as  they  had  temples  of  significance  comparing 
favorably  with  those  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The  gov 
ernment  established  was  based  on  slavery  and  the  people 
devoted  themselves  to  agriculture  and  other  industries. 

There  emerged,  too,  the  large  kingdom  of  Songhay,  cov 
ering  the  period  from  the  year  700  to  1335,  with  three  well- 
connected  dynasties  distinguished  by  great  warriors  who 
extended  the  territory  of  the  empire,  and  The  Kingdom 
statesmen  who  distinguished  themselves  in  of  Songhay. 
administering  its  affairs.  After  resisting  the  Mohammedans 
for  some  time,  the  sixteenth  king  was  converted  to  their 
faith  about  the  year  1000.  Among  the  greatest  of  these 
rulers  was  Soni  Ali,  noted  for  his  military  exploits  and  his 
success  as  a  statesman.  The  country  again  saw  something 
like  a  return  to  a  golden  age  under  another  distinguished 
ruler  called  Mohammed  Askia,  who  brought  the  country  into 
contact  with  Egypt  and  the  outer  world,  and  finally 
marched  against  neighboring  empires,  which  he  conquered 
and  ruled  with  a  provincial  system  very  much  like  that  of 
Rome.  He  established  schools  of  learning  and  promoted 
the  study  of  law,  literature,  the  natural  sciences,  and 
medicine. 


12  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

In  the  end,  however,  this  empire  fell  into  the  hands  of 
undesirable  rulers,  and  according  to  the  pious  annalist, 
"All  was  changed  in  a  moment.  Danger  took  the  place  of 
serenity,  destitution  of  abundance ;  trouble,  calamities,  and 
violence  succeeded  to  tranquillity.  Everywhere  the  popu 
lations  began  to  destroy  each  other.  In  all  places  and  in 
every  direction  rapine  became  the  law,  war  spared  neither 
life,  nor  property,  nor  the  position  of  the  people.  Dis 
order  was  general,  and  it  spread  everywhere  till  it  reached 
at  last  the  highest  degree  of  intensity. "  "  Things  continued 
thus,"  adds  the  historian,  "until  towards  the  moment  in 
which  the  Songhay  dynasty  approached  its  end,  and  its 
empire  ceased  to  exist.  At  this  moment  faith  was  ex 
changed  for  infidelity ;  there  was  nothing  forbidden  by  God 
which  was  not  openly  done.  Men  drank  wine,  they  gave 
themselves  up  to  vice.  .  .  .  Because  of  these  abominations, 
the  Almighty  in  his  vengeance  drew  down  upon  the  Songhay 
the  victorious  army  of  the  Moors,  whom  he  brought  through 
terrible  sufferings  from  a  distant  country.  Then  the  roots 
of  this  people  were  separated  from  the  trunk,  and  the 
chastisement  they  underwent  was  exemplary. ' ' 7 

It  is  clear  that  African  culture  prior  to  the  exploitation 
of  the  new  world  was  in  many  respects  like  the  culture  of 
Europe.  The  natives  far  removed  from  the  equator  had 
African  reached  the  stage  of  easily  earning  a  sub 

culture,  sistence  by  using  iron  implements,  a  thing 

which  European  nations  were  late  in  learning.  In  art  and 
architecture  they  had  advanced  far  beyond  the  primitive 
stage,  in  literature  their  achievements  attained  the  rank 
of  the  world's  best  classics  in  the  Tarik  e  Soudan,  and  in 
religion  and  morals  most  of  them  kept  abreast  with  the 
times.  In  government  the  Africans  united  the  best  in 
democracy  and  monarchy.  Theirs  was  a  slave  society,  but 

7  F.  L.  S.  Lngard,  A  Tropical  Dcpcndcnci/,  pp.  28.3-284 :  The  Journal 
of  Negro  History,  Vol.  TT,  p.  140. 


The  Negro  In  Africa  13 

there  was  a  healthy  sentiment  against  the  exploitation  of 

men.     With  the  thinking  class  birth  did  not  differ  from 

birth;  "as  the  freeman  was  born  so  was  the  slave."    "In 

the    beginning,"     said    a    pious 

African,  "our  Lord  created  all; 

with  Him  there  is  neither  slave 

nor   freeman,    but   every    one    is 

free."      "To   love   a   king,"    the 

African  thought,  "is  not  bad,  but 

a  king  who  loves  you  is  better." 

And  it  sounds  a  little  socialistic 

to  hear  the   proverbs,   "If  thou 

art  poor  do  not  make  the  rich  man 

thv  friend,"  "If  thou  goest  to  a  GUSTAVUS  VASA,  a  talented 

,.    ,  L  African 

foreign  country,  do  not  alight  at 

a  rich  man's  house,"  or  "It  is  better  to  be  poor  and  live 
long  than  rich  and  die  young." 

The  African  mind  exhibited  during  these  years  evidences 
of  a  philosophy  not  to  be  despised.  The  native  philosopher 
found  three  friends  in  "courage,  sense  and  insight."  The 
African  realized  that  "the  lack  of  knowledge  African 
is  darker  than  night,"  that  "an  ignorant  man  proverbs, 
is  a  slave,"  and  that  "whoever  works  without  knowledge 
works  uselessly. "  "  Not  to  know, ' '  he  believed, ' '  is  bad ;  not 
to  wish  to  know  is  worse. ' '  Adhering  to  a  high  standard  of 
morals,  the  African  taught  the  youth  that  "there  is  no 
medicine  for  hate"  and  that  "he  who  bears  malice  is  a 
heathen;  he  who  injures  another  brings  injury  to  him 
self."  To  emphasize  opportunity  the  moralist  reminded 
his  fellows  that  "the  dawn  does  not  come  twice  to  wake 
a  man."  To  teach  politeness  he  asserted  that  "bowing 
to  a  dwarf  will  not  prevent  your  standing  erect  again." 
In  emphasizing  the  truth,  he  asserted  that  "lies,  however 
numerous,  will  be  caught  by  truth  when  it  rises, ' '  and  ' '  the 
voice  of  truth  is  easily  known."  The  selfish  man  was 


14  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

warned  that  "if  you  love  yourself,  others  will  hate  you; 
if  you  humble  yourself,  others  will  love  you."  Among  the 
Africans  there  was  a  feeling  that  "a  man  with  wisdom  is 
better  off  than  a  stupid  man  with  any  amount  of  charm 
and  superstition. ' '  Such  sentient  expressions  as  "A 
butterfly  that  brushes  against  thorns  will  tear  his  wings," 
and  * '  He  who  cannot  move  an  ant  and  yet  tries  to  move  an 
elephant  shall  find  his  folly,"  have  the  ring  of  the  planta 
tion  philosophy  developed  in  the  United  States.  The 
proverbs  "When  the  fox  dies,  fowls  do  not  mourn,"  and 
'  *  He  who  goes  with  a  wolf  will  learn  to  howl, ' ' 8  exhibit  more 
than  ordinary  mental  development. 

8  A  larger  number  of  these  proverbs  appear  in  The  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  42-48;  but  a  detailed  study  in  this  field  would 
require  R.  F.  Burton's  Wit  and  Wisdom  from  West  Africa,  S.  W. 
Koells's  African  Native  Literature,  A.  B.  Ellis's  The  Yoruba  Speaking 
Peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast  of  West  Africa,  and  H.  Chatelian's  Folk 
Lore  of  Angola. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   NEGRO   ENSLAVED 

THAT  the  Negro  should  be  enslaved  was  in  the  halcyon 
days  of  the  institution  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Slavery 
was  once  the  normal  condition  of  the  majority  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  world.  In  many  countries  Ancient 
slaves  outnumbered  freemen  three  to  one.  slavery. 
Greece  and  Rome,  the  most  civilized  of  the  ancient  nations 
in  which  the  so-called  democracy  of  that  day  had  its  best 
opportunity,  were  not  exceptions  to  this  rule.  Primitive 
slavery,  however,  differed  very  much  from  the  slavery  of 
which  our  forefathers  remind  us.  Among  the  ancients, 
slavery  resulted  from  the  effort  to  make  a  safe  disposition 
of  captives  in  war  by  using  them  as  laborers  at  home  while 
citizens  and  subjects  in  good  physical  condition  went 
abroad  to  defend  the  honor  of  the  nation. 

It  happened  that  centuries  ago,  when  African  civilization 
was  not  unlike  that  of  the  emerging  modern  Europe,  Africa 
was  disturbed  from  without  and  within  by  migrations  like 
the  movement  which  overthrew  the  Roman  The  Fifteenth 
empire  and  destroyed  its  civilization.  Being  Century, 
too  weak  to  resist  invaders  while  dealing  with  enemies  at 
home,  Africa  yielded  to  the  attacks  of  restless  nations. 
When  the  Bantu  hordes  had  destroyed  the  peace  of  the 
African  empires,  there  came  the  Mohammedans  in  quest 
of  slaves  to  supply  their  harems  and  armies,  and  finally  the 
slave  traders  from  the  United  States,  giving  cause  for  local 

15 


16  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

wars  to  secure  a  labor  supply  for  the  exploitation  of  the 
New  World.1 

During  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries,  the  Moham 
medan  religion  well  established  itself  in  Western  Asia  and 
began  to  take  over  Northern  Africa.  At  first  Africans 
Mohammedan  already  enslaved  were  bought  from  their 
slavery.  masters  and  used  in  war,  as  was  the  custom 

throughout  Europe  and  Asia.  When,  however,  the  exigen 
cies  of  those  circumstances  demanded  a  larger  number  of 
slaves  than  could  thereby  be  supplied,  they  were  seized 
by  well  planned  methods  involving  the  enslavement  and 
depopulation  of  large  districts  of  Africa.  This  led  to  the 
overthrow  of  African  nations  long  since  established  as 
centers  of  culture  and  the  rise  of  other  States  committed 
to  the  policy  of  profiting  by  the  lucrative  slave  trade. 
This  trade  finally  extended  to  the  very  interior  of  the 
continent  and  became  the  most  cruel  traffic  in  human  flesh 
theretofore  known  to  the  world.  It  is  only  of  late  that  it 
can  be  said  that  this  Mohammedan  slave  trade  has  been 
decidedly  checked  or  brought  to  an  end.  It  remained  as  a 
disgrace  to  certain  Eastern  nations  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  and  even  into  the  twentieth. 
Slavery  among  the  Mohammedans,  however,  was  not  al 
together  a  hopeless  condition.  If  the  slave  professed  faith 
in  the  tenets  of  Mohammed,  he  became  a  communicant  in 
that  connection,  enjoying  equality  with  the  richest  and  the 
best,  accepted  on  the  principle  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Following  upon  the  Mohammedan  quest  of  slaves  came 
the  discovery  of  America,  which,  being  in  itself  a  conspicu- 

i  The  conditions  in  Africa  facilitating  the  increase  in  the  slave 
trade  arc  treated  in  T.  K.  Ingram's  History  of  Slavery  and  Serfdom, 
John  R.  Spears's  The  American  Slave  Trade,  W.  E.  B.  DuBois's  Sup 
pression  of  the  African  Slave  Trade,  B.  Mayer's  Captain  Canot 
or  Twenty  Years  of  an  African  Slaver,  R.  Drake's  The  Revelations  of 
a  Slave  Smuggler,  Bryan  Edward's  West  Indies,  and  T.  Clarkson's 
History  of  the  Abolition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  2  Volumes. 


The  Negro  Enslaved 


17 


ous  event  in  the  Keiiaissance,  meant  nothing  less  than  the 
opening  of  a  new  field  of  exploitation  in  a  hitherto  unknown 
world.     In  carrying  out  the  policy  of  com-        The  slave 
mercial  expansion  so  eagerly  championed  some        trade, 
years  later  by  the  leading  nations  of  Europe,  the  planter 
class  did  not  proceed  far  before  they  fell  back  on  compulsory 
labor.     At  first  they  impressed  the  Indians  into  their  ser 
vice,  but  because  of  their  intractability  these  proved  in  most 
cases  to  be  unprofitable  bondmen. 


AN  AFRICAN  SLAVE  MARKET 

Certain  settlers  established  mainly  in  Pennsylvania,  Mary 
land  and  Virginia  made  the  experiment  with  indentured 
white  servants.  Some  of  these  were,  like  the  Pennsylvania 
Redemptioners,  respectable  persons  bound  to  Indentured 
service  for  a  number  of  years  to  pay  their  servants, 
expense  from  Europe  to  the  New  World.  To  Virginia  and 
Maryland,  however,  were  transported  a  large  number  of 
convicts  more  or  less  desirable  than  the  ruined  and  im 
prisoned  debtors  whose  release  was  effected  by  Oglethorpe 


18  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

that  they  might  try  life  anew  in  Georgia.  This  traffic,  like 
the  slave  trade,  was  objectionable  to  some  colonies,  and  they 
enacted  measures  to  restrict  it ;  but  these  were  vetoed  by  the 
King  of  England  as  being  contrary  to  acts  of  Parliament 
granting  authority  for  the  continuation  of  the  evil.  As 
white  servants,  however,  could  not  be  obtained  in  sufficiently 
large  numbers  to  supply  the  demand  for  labor,  and  as  the 
indefinite  term  of  their  service  was  prejudicial  to  the  inter 
est  of  their  masters,  there  followed,  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  an  increasing  demand  for  Negro  slaves  in  the  agricul 
tural  colonies. 

The  Christians,  like  the  Mohammedans,  justified  their 
enslavement  of  foreigners  on  the  ground  of  their  being  cap 
tives  in  war,  but  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries, 
when  the  Europeans  were  engaged  in  the  exploitation  of 
Christian  the  New  World,  slaves  were  no  longer  merely 
slavery.  taken  over  as  a  sequel  of  war  but  became  also 

an  object  of  commerce  to  supply  the  colonies  with  cheap 
labor.  This  change  of  attitude  was  justified  by  the  Chris 
tian  world  on  the  ground  that,  although  it  was  contrary  to 
an  unwritten  law  to  enslave  a  Christian,  this  principle  was 
not  applicable  to  the  unconverted  Negroes.  Driven  later 
from  this  position  when  numerous  Negroes  accepted  Chris 
tianity,  they  salved  their  consciences  by  a  peculiar  philoso 
phy  of  the  officials  of  the  church  to  the  effect  that  conversion 
did  not  work  manumission  in  the  case  of  the  Negro  who  dif 
fered  so  widely  from  the  white  man.  The  substance  of  this 
was  soon  incorporated  into  the  laws  of  the  colonies. 

Prior  to  the  operation  of  the  slave  trade  for  the  purpose 
of  exploitation,  there  had  been  sufficient  infiltration  of  the 
Negroes  into  southern  European  countries  to  make  their 
African  presence  no  exception  to  the  rule.  African 

slaves  in  slaves  were  brought  to  Spain,  and  this  trade 

Europo.  was  f^her  extended  by  the  Portuguese  when 

they  conquered  the  Mohammedans  of  North  Africa.  After 


The  Negro  Enslaved  19 

the  extensive  explorations  of  Prince  Henry,  the  Portuguese 
ships  were  bringing  to  that  country  more  than  seven  or 
eight  hundred  slaves  every  year  to  serve  as  domestic 
servants  and  to  work  the  estates  evacuated  by  the  Moors. 
Slaves  were  so  common  in  the  city  of  Seville  in  1474  that 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  nominated  a  celebrated  Negro, 
Juan  de  Valladolid,  as  the  "mayoral  of  the  Negroes"  in 
that  city.2 

This  slavery  in  the  Iberian  peninsula,  of  course,  was  of 
a  mild  form.;  for,  despite  the  suggestions  of  men  commer 
cially  inclined,  the  Christian  Queen  Isabella  had  refused 
to  permit  the  traders  to  embark  upon  the  slavery  in 
enterprise  as  a  commercial  one.  Furthermore,  Spain, 
to  prevent  the  spread  of  heathenism  and  to  promote  re 
ligion,  she  allowed  only  Christian  Negroes  to  be  carried 
to  the  colonies.3  At  the  death  of  Isabella,  however,  King 
Ferdinand,  who  was  less  interested  in  the  Negroes  than 
was  his  companion,  gradually  yielded  to  the  requests  of  the 
merchant  class,  and  unconverted  Negroes  were  brought  to 
the  Spanish  colonies.  But  Ferdinand  did  not  give  exten 
sive  privileges  to  all  persons  desiring  to  import  Negroes, 
and  at  times  undertook  to  check  the  trade.  In  the  reign  of 
Charles  V,  Bishop  las  Cassas  urged  a  plan  for  importing 
Negroes  to  take  the  place  of  the  enfeebled  Indian  slaves, 
and  this  plan,  once  adopted,  became  the  policy  of  the  Span 
iards  in  dealing  with  the  Negroes  in  their  colonies. 

All  of  the  seafaring  nations  of  Europe  took  part  in 
this  enterprise.    The  Portuguese,  the  first  to  make  extensive 
explorations  on  the  coasts  of  Africa  under  the  direction  of 
Prince  Henry  of  that  country,  built  the  first     Traders  on 
slave  fort  at  Elmina,  on  the  Gold  Coast,  in      the  African 
1482.     The  Dutch,  too,  at  the  time  of  their     Coast' 
struggle  for  freedom  from  Spanish  domination  in   1599, 

2  W.  E.  B.  DuBois,  The  Negro,  p.  146. 

3C.  G.  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  p.  19. 


20 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


attacked  the  forts  of  the  Portuguese,  then  subject  to  Spain, 
and  engaged  in  the  slave  trade  themselves.  The  English, 
desirous  of  reaping  some  of  these  benefits  for  their  own 
commerce,  undertook  in  1562  to  secure  this  trade  through 
Sir  John  Hawkins.  Uniting  religion  with  the  slave  trade, 
he  ordered  his  crews  to  " serve  God  daily,"  and  "to  love 
one  another."4  He  went  first  to  Hispaniola  with  three 


INSPECTING  A  NEGRO  CAPTIVE 

hundred  Negroes  whom  he  traded  for  pearls,  hides  and 
other  products.  The  second  voyage  was  more  hazardous, 
and  he  failed  in  the  third.  In  spite  of  his  murderous  plun 
dering,  however,  his  chronicler  entreats  that  "his  name 
be  praised  f orevermore,  Amen. ' ' 5 

Yet  men  of  the  type  of  Hawkins  are  not  to  be  unsym- 
pathetically  condemned.     In  that  day  there  was  no  sharp 


*Hakluyt's  Voyages,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  521. 

s  E.  Charming,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  p.  115. 


The  Negro  Enslaved  21 

distinction  between  a  pirate  and  an  honorable  seaman. 
Some  of  the  sea  rovers  held  commissions  of  their  God-fearing 
sovereigns  who  promoted  these  enterprises.  piracy  and 
The  white  race,  moreover,  has  not  yet  emerged  commerce, 
from  the  stage  of  primitive  civilization  when  right  was 
restricted  to  one's  blood  kin.  If  strangers  within  the  gates 
could  not  be  murdered,  there  was  no  moral  law  restraining 
one  from  abusing  the  subjects  of  non-Christian  nations. 
Mendez  believed  that  his  slaughter  of  captives  was  for  the 
glory  of  God,  and  Francis  Drake,  the  notorious  plunderer 
of  his  time,  commended  his  lieutenant  "to  the  tuition  of 
Him  that  with  his  blood  redeemed  us. " 6  In  this  state  of 
moral  backwardness,  therefore,  it  did  not  startle  Christen 
dom  when  there  appeared  in  Virginia  in  1619  "a  Dutch 
manne-of-war  that  sold  us  twenty  negars, ' '  thus  introducing 
in  the  United  States  the  curse  of  slavery  from  which  this 
country  has  not  yet  been  thoroughly  redeemed. 

The  slave  trade  was  mainly  promoted  through  a  few 
large  trading  corporations.  Among  the  first  of  these  were 
the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  established  in  1621,  and 
the  Eoyal  African  Company,  chartered  by  the  Slave-trade 
English  in  1672.  These  corporations  main-  corporations, 
tained  a  line  of  vessels  plying  between  Europe  and  certain 
slave-trading  ports  established  on  the  Guinea  coast.7  The 
French  operated  in  the  region  of  the  Senegal,  the  English 
on  the  Gambia,  and  the  Dutch  and  English  on  the  Gold 
Coast.  In  the  course  of  time  the  slave  trade  in  the  interior 
of  Africa  was  highly  developed.  Wars  were  being  waged 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  securing  slaves  for  the  market,  and 
when  captured  they  were  brought  to  the  coast  and  sold  to  the 
representatives  of  the  companies  with  vessels  in  port  for 
their  exportation.  They  were  not  natives  of  the  countries 

GE.  Charming,  History  of  the  U.  8.,  I,  p.  116. 

7  For  a  sketch  of  the  early  slave  trade  see  George  F.  Zook's  The 
Royal  Adventurers  Trading  Into  Africa. 


22  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

along  the  coast.  In  fact,  Africans  of  these  ports  were 
seldom  sold  for  this  purpose  except  when  a  rival  nation 
captured  the  slaves  of  the  masters  living  in  a  hostile  section. 
Most  of  the  slaves  supplying  this  demand  were  brought  from 
the  distant  countries  in  the  interior  of  Africa. 

The  commodities  given  in  exchange  for  these  slaves  were 
sent  out  from  manufacturing  centers  like  Newport  in  Rhode 
Island  and  Liverpool  in  England.  These  vessels  carried 
iron  bars,  rum,  cloth,  shells,  crystal  beads,  brass  pans,  and 
The  Slavers,  foreign  coins,  to  be  exchanged  for  slaves. 
The  slaves  thus  purchased  had  been  driven  to  the  coast  in 
coffles,  sometimes  for  distances  of  more  than  one  thousand 
miles,  crossing  a  country  which  had  practically  no  facilities 
for  transportation  with  the  exception  of  those  with  which 
nature  had  endowed  it.  As  it  was  necessary  to  go  most  of 
the  way  walking,  and  as  the  means  of  subsistence  were  not 
always  to  be  secured,  many  of  the  slaves  dropped  dead 
from  thirst  and  famine.  Those  who  succeeded  in  surviving 
Horrors  of  the  the  ordeal  of  this  drive  to  the  coast  were 
Slave  Trade,  presented  for  sale  on  arrival.  Captives  ac 
cepted  as  valuable  were  shackled  and  herded  together  like 
cattle  in  ships,  which  made  their  way  to  the  West  Indies. 
The  space  usually  allowed  for  the  standing  room  of  a 
slave  was  just  a  few  square  inches.  Crowded  thus  to 
gether  in  the  lower  parts  of  an  unsanitary  vessel,  thou 
sands  of  these  unfortunates  died  of  various  diseases  be 
fore  reaching  America.  Occasionally  there  would  arise, 
among  the  captives  on  board,  a  riot  to  liberate  them 
selves  by  killing  their  owners,  but  the  system  was  finally 
reduced  to  such  a  safe  procedure  that  little  fear  therefrom 
was  experienced.8 

These  slaves  were  not  brought  directly  to  the  continental 
ports.  Slave  labor  did  not  at  first  seem  very  profitable 

s  This  trade  has  been  described  by  John  R.  Spears  in  his  The  Ameri 
can  Slave  Trade. 


The  Negro  Enslaved 


23 


along  the  Atlantic,  but  in  the  West  Indies,  devoted  to  the 
production  of  cane  sugar  then  so  much  in  demand,  African 
slaves  were  welcomed.    They  were  carried  to  these  islands, 
where  they  were  exchanged  mainly  for  such  raw  materials 
as  molasses  which,  when  brought  by  the  slav-    Slaves  carried 
ers  to  our  ports,  was  manufactured  into  rum.   to  the 
With  this  rum  the  ships  set  out  to  Africa   Wes 
again  on  their  triangular  route  connecting  with  the  commer 
cial  centers  in  three  widely  separated  parts  of  the  world. 

In  the  West  Indies  the  Ne-  ,__ 

groes  were  successfully  ex 
ploited  so  as  to  make  those 
islands  the  wealthiest  colo 
nies  of  the  world.  In  the 
course  of  time,  however, 
after  having  been  well 
broken  in  and  in  some  cases 
after  having  taken  over  a 
considerable  portion  of  the 
western  civilization,  many 
slaves  were  brought  from 
the  West  Indies  to  the 
United  States.  Some  of 
them  had  then  learned  to 
read  and  write  two  or  three 
modern  languages.9  When, 
however,  such  Negroes  proved  to  be  the  source  of  discon 
tent  and  insurrections  because  of  the  mental  development 
they  had  experienced,  the  American  colonists  deemed  it  wiser 
to  import  slaves  in  their  crude  form  directly  from  Africa. 
As  to  exactly  how  many  Negroes  were  thus  brought  away 
from  Africa,  authorities  widely  differ.  When  the  slave 

9  For  the  mental  development  of  these  slaves  see  C.  G.  Woodson's 
The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  pp.  82-84;  and  The  Journal 
of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  177-189, 


BRANDING  A  NEGRO  WOMAN  SLAVE 


24  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

trade  was  in  full  swing  50,000  or  100,000  were  brought 
over  every  year.  Some  authorities  believe  that  not 
The  enormity  more  than  5,000,000,  while  others  contend 
of  the  trade.  that  10,000,000  Africans  were  expatriated. 
But  to  figure  out  the  extent  to  which  this  process  of  de 
population  affected  Africa,  one  must  bear  in  mind  that  for 
every  slave  imported  into  America  at  least  four  or  five 
others  had  to  meet  death  in  the  numerous  wars  waged 
solely  for  supplying  the  slave  market,  in  the  inhuman  drive 
to  the  coast,  and  in  the  cruel  shipment  in  unsanitary  ships 
hardly  suitable  for  importing  hogs.  Africa  probably  lost 
more  than  50,000,000  natives.  When  we  think  of  how 
the  recent  conscription  of  4,000,000  men  upset  the  economic 
and  social  life  in  our  own  country,  we  can  easily  estimate 
the  effect  of  the  loss  to  Africa  of  50,000,000  of  its  in 
habitants. 

The  source  of  these  Negroes  will  be  of  much  interest. 
They  came  in  the  main  from  Guinea  and  the  Gold  Coast. 
Among  these  were  a  few  of  the  most  intelligent  of  the 
Sources  of  Africans,  the  Senegalese,  with  an  infusion  of 
the  slaves.  Arabic  blood,  especially  valuable  for  their 
work  as  mechanics  and  artisans.  Then  there  were  the 
Mandingoes,  who  were  considered  gentle  in  demeanor  but 
prone  to  theft.  The  Coromantees  brought  from  the  Gold 
Coast  were  hearty  and  stalwart  in  mind  and  body,  and 
for  that  reason  frequently  the  source  of  slave  insurrections 
which  became  the  eternal  dread  of  the  masters.  It  was 
said,  however,  that  the  Coromantees  were  not  revengeful 
when  well  treated.  Slavers  brought  over  some  Whydahs, 
Nagoes  and  Pawpaws,  as  they  were  much  desired  by  the 
planters  because  they  were  lusty,  industrious,  cheerful  and 
submissive.  There  came  also  the  Gaboons,  who  were  physi 
cally  weak  and  consequently  unsuited  for  purposes  of 
exploitation.  The  colonists  imported,  too,  some  Gambia 
Negroes,  prized  for  their  meekness,  whereas  the  Eboes 


The  Negro  Enslaved  2.5 

from  Calabar  were  not  desired,  because  they  were  inclined 
to  commit  suicide  rather  than  bear  the  yoke  of  slavery. 
The  Congoes,  Angolas  and  the  Eboes  gave  their  masters 
much  trouble  by  running  away. 

The  lot  of  the  slave  in  the  West  Indies  was  most  unfor 
tunate.  Owing  to  the  absentee  ownership,  the  inefficient 
management  of  the  plantations,  and  the  paucity  of  white 
women  to  serve  as  restraining  influences  on  masters,  the 
system  of  slavery  developed  there  proved  to  Theslave 
be  of  a  cruel  sort.  The  slaves  were  treated  in  the 
more  as  brutes  subjected  to  a  process  known  *West  Indies- 
as  li breaking  in."  Some  were  assigned  to  work  among 
well  seasoned  slaves,  and  a  few  were  given  individual  tasks. 
When  they  became  wrell  "broken  in,"  they  were  grouped 
by  families  in  separate  quarters,  surrounded  by  small  tracts 
of  land  on  which  they  were  required  to  raise  their  own  food. 
Such  things  as  clothing,  dried  fish,  molasses,  rum  and  salt, 
which  they  could  not  easily  produce,  were  issued  from  the 
plantation  commissary.  They  went  to  work  in  gangs,  some 
tilling  the  sugar  cane  in  the  fields,  some  to  work  in  the  mills 
and  stills,  some  at  handicrafts,  and  others  in  domestic 
service.10 

As  few  implements  had  been  introduced  and  the  planters 
of  that  day  did  not  easily  take  to  labor-saving  devices,  most 
of  the  cultivation  of  the  crops  was  done  with  the  hoe,  which 
required  the  hardest  labor.    Under  these  condi-       Hardships 
tions  the  slaves  could  not  develop  into  a  robust        the  cause 
class  and,  worst  of  all,  many  of  them  died  as 
a  result  of  this  drudgery.     While  the  death-rate  was  un 
usually   high,   the   birth-rate   was   exceptionally   small,    as 
there  was  no  provision  for  taking  care  of  the  African  new 
born.     Speaking  of  Jamaica,  a  surgeon  said  that  one-third 
of  the  babies  died  in  the  first  month,  and  few  of  the  imported 

10  This  purely  economic  aspect  of  slavery  has  been  unscientifically 
discussed  by  U.  B.  Phillips  in  his  American  Negro  Slavery. 


26 


The  Negro  In  Our  Histoiy 


women  bore  children.  A  contemporary  said  that  more  than 
a  quarter  of  the  babies  died  within  the  first  nine  days  of 
"jaw  fall,"  and  another  fourth  before  they  passed  their 
second  year.  This  meant  that  the  colonies  had  to  depend 
on  the  importation  of  new  African  slaves,  thus  giving 
stimulus  to  the  slave  trade  to  supply  the  demand  for  labor. 


THE  FAITHFUL  SLAVE 

Among  the  Spanish  and  French  colonists  the  condition 
of  the  blacks  was  somewhat  different.  The  home  coun 
tries  in  these  two  cases  insisted  on  the  enlightenment  of  the 
The  enlight-  slaves  and  were  more  generous  than  the  Eng- 
enment  of  lish  in  offering  bondmen  opportunities  to  toil 
the  slaves.^  upward.  While  the  slaves  as  such  did  not 
fare  much  better  than  they  did  on  the  English  plantation, 
the  tendency  of  the  Latins  to  interbreed  with  the  blacks, 
and  their  custom  of  recognizing  and  elevating  their  mulatto 
offspring,  offered  a  way  of  escape  to  a  large  number  of 


The  Negro  Enslaved  27 

Negroes  among  the  French  and  Spaniards,  who  cohabited 
with  Negro  women  rather  than  bring  wives  from  their  home 
countries.  A  large  number  of  bondmen  in  Latin- America 
secured  their  manumission  by  meritorious  service  and 
thereafter  had  the  status  of  freemen.11 

An  individual  of  this  class  closely  connected  with  our 
local  history  was  Estevanecito,  or  little  Stephen.    He  arose 
to  usefulness  and  prominence  among  the  Spaniards  while 
they  were  extending  their  explorations  into    Estevanecito 
Mexico  and  into  what  is  now  the  southwestern    the  Negro 
part  of  the  United  States.     Estevanecito  was    explorer- 
the  moving  spirit  of  the  expedition  conducted  there  by  Fray 
Marcos  de  Niza.     He  was  usually  the  forerunner  of  the 
forces  preparing  the  way  for  those  who  were  to  claim  the 
country,  going  far  enough  in  advance  of  the  expedition  to 
clear  their  path  of  hostile  Indians.     His  work  was  well 
planned  and  successfully  executed  during  the  most  of  his 
tours,  but  he  met  a  stubborn  resistance  at  Cibola,  where  he 
fell   mortally  wounded   in  trying  to   carry  the  town  by 
storm.12 

11  This  interbreeding  is  set  forth  in  detail  by  C.  G.  Woodson  in 
The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  335. 

12  "Leaving  the  northernmost   Spanish  settlement  of  the  western 
coast,"  says  a  legend,  "Fray  Marcos  took  with  him  Estevan,  the  black 
companion   of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  who  had  been  in  search   of  the   El 
Dorado  and  Seven  Cities  of  so  much  concern  to  the  Spaniards.     A 
few  weeks  after  setting  out  Fray  Marcos  sent  Estevan  in  command 
of  a  number  of  Indians  fifty  or  sixty  leagues  ahead  to  discover  the 
El  Dorado.     The  arrangement  was  that  if  Estevan  found  anything 
worth  while  he  would  send  back  a  large  cross.     If  the  information 
obtained  did  not  seem  valuable,  he  would  send  a  small  cross.     Fray 
Marcos  was  much  delighted  four  days  later  when  there  returned  an 
Indian  bearing  a  large  cross  and  describing  the  seven  large  cities  of 
imposing  lime   and  stone  structures  with   portals  ornamented  with 
turquoise.     Too  eager  to  await  the  coming  of  Fray  Marcos,  Estevan 
undertook  to  take  the  city,  where  he  was  overpowered  by  superior 
forces  and  slain.     Presenting  himself  as  the  agent  of  the  white  man, 
he  was  branded   a  liar  by  the   Indians,  who   thought  it   incredible 
for  a  black  man  to  be  the  agent  of  two  whites.     They  found  Estevan 
greedy,  immoral  and  cowardly,  and  when  he  sought  to  escape,  killed 
him."— See  Channing,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  I,  pp.  75-76. 


28  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Among  these  fortunate  Negroes  there  was  in  Guatemala, 
in  the  seventeenth  century,  a  freedman  who  had  accumu 
lated  much  wealth.  He  had  secured  his  liberty  by  paying 
his  kind  master  a  handsome  sum  for  his  freedom.  There- 
A  thrifty  after  he  bought  a  large  farm  and  considerably 

freedman  in  increased  his  holdings  by  making  other  pur 
chases.  He  lived  in  Agua  Caliente,  a  little 
Indian  village  on  the  road  to  the  city  of  Guatemala,  in  that 
part  of  the  country  then  said  to  abound  with  gold,  a  treasure 
which  the  Spaniards  had  for  many  years  sought  in  vain. 
Although  the  sources  of  this  Negro's  wealth  were  cattle, 
sheep,  goats,  and  his  trade  in  butter  and  cheese  with  the 
City  of  Guatemala,  the  Spaniards  persisted  in  believing 
that  his  wealth  came  from  the  hidden  treasure.13 

In  his  travels  through  this  tropical  region,  Sir  Thomas 
Gage  found  a  still  more  interesting  Negro  of  this  class. 
While  sailing  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Costa  Rica,  Gage 's 
The  Black  ship  was  captured  by  two  corsairs  under  the 
Corsair.  flag  Of  ^he  Dutch,  who  were  then  struggling 

against  Spain  for  their  freedom.  The  commander  of  this 
ship  was  a  mulatto  named  Diaguillo,  a  native  of  Havana, 
where  his  mother  then  lived.  Because  of  maltreatment  by 
the  Governor  of  Campeche,  to  whom  he  was  attached  as  a 
servant,  this  mulatto  desperately  ventured  to  swim  to  one 
of  the  Dutch  ships  near-by.  Offering  himself  to  serve  the 
Dutch  against  those  who  had  abused  him,  he  easily  in 
gratiated  himself  into  their  favor.  Soon  thereafter  he  mar 
ried  a  Dutch  girl  and  arose  to  the  position  of  captain  of  a 
vessel  under  the  command  of  the  famous  and  dreadful 
commander  named  Pie  de  Palo.  Coming  aboard  the  ship 
on  which  Gage  was  sailing,  the  corsair  took  four  thousand 
pesos  worth  of  jewelry  and  pearls  and  deprived  the  indi 
viduals  of  their  personal  belongings.  But  because  of  Gage's 

i*The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  p.  395;  and  Sir  Thomas 
Gage's  Voyages,  Part  3,  Ch.  II. 


The  Negro  Enslaved  29 

ministerial  profession  Diaguillo  permitted  him  to  retain 
some  books,  pictures  and  clothes,  saying  to  him,  *  *  If  fortune 
to-day  is  on  my  side,  to-morrow  it  will  be  on  yours,  and 
what  I  have  won  to-day,  that  I  may  lose  to-morrow." 
Diaguillo  then  prepared  a  luxurious  dinner,  to  which  he 
invited  Thomas  Gage.  Thereafter  he  took  leave  of  the 
captives,  thanking  the  crew  for  the  good  luck  they  had 
procured  him.14 

The  most  interesting  example  of  the  enlightened  Negro 
of  this  class  in  the  West  Indies  was  Francis  Williams,  the 
son  of  one  John  Williams,  liberated  in  1708,  and  ranked 
among  those  persons  in  the  island  against  Francis 
whom  slave  testimony  was  forbidden.  These  Williams, 
same  privileges  then  extended  to  other  mem 
bers  of  his  family,  and  attached  to  them  unusual  impor 
tance  among  the  white  people  with  whom  they  moved  so 
cially.  We  have  much  more  information  about  his  son 
Francis.  The  family  was  of  such  good  report,  and  the  youth 
Francis  had  exhibited  so  many  evidences  of  mental  capacity, 
that  early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  Duke  of  Montague, 
desiring  to  put  to  test  some  of  his  opinions  about  the  capa 
bilities  of  the  Negro,  had  Francis  instructed  in  an  elemen 
tary  school  in  Jamaica  and  then  sent  to  an  English  grammar 
school  to  prepare  for  Cambridge  University.  After  some 
years  Francis  Williams  completed  his  education  at  that  in 
stitution  and  returned  to  Jamaica  between  1738  and  1748. 

Impressed  more  than  ever  with  the  truth  that  a  Negro 
trained  in  the  same  way  as  a  white  man  will  exhibit  the 
same  intellectual  attainments,  the  Duke  of  Montague  sought 
further  to  advance  his  protege  by  securing  for  him  a  seat 
in   the   Jamaica   Council.      This   proposition,  The  Duke  of 
however,  was  opposed  by  Governor  Trelawny,  Montague, 
who  contended  that  admitting  a  black  man  to  the  Council 

"  The  Journ-al  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  p.  395;  and  Sir  Thomas 
Gage's  Voyages,  Part  3,  Ch.  II. 


30  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

would  excite  restlessness  among  the  slaves.  Whether  or  not 
the  governor  was  diplomatic  or  prejudiced  is  not  known. 
He  did  add  a  Negro  detachment  to  the  army  employed  in 
Jamaica  but  he  never  permitted  the  ambitious  youth  to  sit 
in  the  Council.  Williams  settled  in  Spanish  Town,  the  capi 
tal  of  the  island,  and  during  the  rest  of  his  life  conducted 
a  classical  school.  In  this  position  he  made  a  reputation 
for  himself  as  a  schoolmaster  and  figured  somewhat  promi 
nently  as  a  poet.  The  only  evidence  of  his  attainments  in 
this  field,  however,  consists  of  a  Latin  poem  which  conforms 
in  most  respects  to  the  standard  of  that  age.  It  seemed, 
however,  that  the  poet  was  not  very  popular  among  his  own 
people,  as  he  was  regarded  as  haughty  and  opinionated, 
treating  his  fellow  blacks  with  contempt  and  entertaining  a 
rather  high  opinion  of  his  own  knowledge.  He  was  also 
charged  with  being  a  sycophant  and  racial  toady  who  said 
and  did  much  to  do  his  race  harm.15 

This  better  situation  of  a  few  Negroes  was  due  also  to  the 
fact  that  a  large  number  of  slaves  in  remote  parts  of  the 
West  Indies  and  Latin-America  asserted  themselves  and 
The  Maroons,  escaped  to  uninhabited  districts  to  declare  and 
maintain  their  independence  rather  than  bear  the  yoke 
of  bondage.  In  parts  where  the  Negroes  were  as  numerous 
as  the  whites,  these  fugitives  often  jeopardized  the  very  life 
of  the  colony.  As  such,  they  were  known  as  Maroons.  They 
had  few  arms  that  the  primitive  man  did  not  possess,  but 
because  of  their  resourcefulness  and  power  in  military 
organization  they  became  a  source  of  much  terror  through 
out  Latin-America.16  In  the  small  colony  of  Guatemala  in 
the  seventeenth  century  there  were  as  many  as  three  hun- 

15  The  career  of  Francis  Williams  is  treated  in  The  Journal  of 
Negro  History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  146-159.  A  better  account  may  be  found 
in  William  James  Gardner's  History  of  Jamaica,  p.  31;  and  in 
Edward  Long's  History  of  Jamaica,  p.  234. 

10  Dallas,  History  of  Maroons,  p.  26. 


The  Negro  Enslaved  31 

dred  such  Negroes  who  had  resorted  to  the  woods  and 
could   not   be   subdued  by  the   forces  sent   against  them. 

The  greatest  enterprise  of  the  Maroons,  however,  was 
exhibited  not  by  any  particular  individual  but  rather  by 
that  of  the  little  Negro  Republic  in  Brazil,  called  Palmares, 
styled  by  Professor  Charles  E.  Chapman  as  The  Negro 
the  Negro  Numantia,  because  its  career  resem-  Numantia. 
bles  so  much  that  of  Numantia  against  which  the  Romans 
fought  for  a  number  of  years  before  they  could  invade  the 
beleaguered  city.  Because  of  the  bad  treatment  of  the 
Portuguese  slaves,  many  of  those  imported  from  Guinea 
escaped  to  the  forests,  where  they  established  villages  called 
quilombos,  the  type  to  which  Palmares,  in  the  Province  of 
Pernambuco,  belonged.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
this  town  extended  its  sway  over  a  number  of  others  set 
tled  by  persons  of  the  same  antecedents.  At  one  time  it 
was  reported  to  have  a  population  of  twenty  thousand,  with 
ten  thousand  fighting  men.  Palmares,  the  name  also  of  the 
capital  of  the  republic,  was  surrounded  by  wooden  walls 
made  of  the  trunks  of  trees  and  entered  by  huge  gates 
provided  with  facilities  for  wide  surveillance  and  sentry 
service. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  population  of  this  village 
gradually  increased  because  of  the  eagerness  of  slaves  and 
freemen  to  try  their  fortunes  in  the  forests.  In  the  begin 
ning  they  maintained  themselves  by  a  sort  The  rise  of 
of  banditry,  taking  food,  slaves  and  women,  the  republic, 
whether  mulatto,  black,  or  white.  They  later  settled  down 
to  agriculture,  and  established  seemingly  peaceful  trade 
relations  with  the  Portuguese  settlements  in  the  less  hostile 
parts  of  Brazil.  Palmares  then  developed  into  a  sort  of 
nation,  uniting  the  desirable  features  of  the  republican 
and  monarchial  form  of  government,  presided  over  by  a 
chief  executive  called  the  Zomle,  who  ruled  with  absolute 


32  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

authority  during  life.  "The  right  to  candidacy,"  says  Pro 
fessor  Chapman,  "was  restricted  to  a  group  recognized 
as  composing  the  bravest  men  of  the  community.  Any  man 
in  the  state  might  aspire  to  this  dignity  providing  he  had 
Negro  blood  in  his  veins.  There  were  other  officers,  both 
of  a  military  and  a  civil  character.  In  the  interest  of  good 
order  the  Zombes  made  laws  imposing  the  death  penalty 
for  murder,  adultery  and  robbery.  Influenced  by  their 
antecedents,  slavery  was  not  discontinued,  but  a  premium 
was  placed  on  freedom  in  that  every  Negro  who  won  his 
freedom  by  a  successful  flight  to  Palmares  remained  free, 
whereas  those  who  were  captured  as  slaves  continued  as 
such  in  Palmares.  '  ' 

This  Negro  Republic,  however,  was  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Portuguese  an  unnatural  growth.  It  was  considered  a 
resort  for  undesirable  aliens  who  constituted  an  ever-in 
creasing  danger  to  the  prosperity  of  Brazil.  In  1698,  there- 
fore,  Governor  Caetano  de  Mello  of  Pernam- 


destniction  buco  ordered  an  expedition  to  proceed  against 
ares*  the  city.  These  brave  blacks  met  the  invading 
forces  and  indisputably  defeated  them.  Returning  later, 
however,  with  a  formidable  army  of  seven  thousand  men 
under  the  command  of  a  more  competent  soldier  and  pro 
vided,  too,  with  adequate  artillery,  the  Portuguese  reached 
the  city  after  some  difficulty  and  placed  it  in  a  state  of  siege. 
The  defense  of  this  city  was  heroic.  "After  the  Portuguese 
had  breached  the  walls  in  three  places,"  says  the  annalist, 
"their  infantry  attacked  in  force.  They  entered  the  city, 
but  had  to  take  it  foot  by  foot.  At  last  the  defenders  came 
to  the  center  of  Palmares  where  a  high  cliff  impeded  further 
retreat.  Death  or  surrender  were  the  only  alternatives. 
Seeing  that  his  cause  was  lost  beyond  repair,  the  Zombe 
hurled  himself  over  the  cliff,  and  his  action  was  followed 
by  the  most  distinguished  of  his  fighting  men.  Some  per 
sons  were  indeed  taken,  but  it  is  perhaps  a  tribute  to 


The  Negro  Enslaved  33 

Palmares,  though  a  grewsome  one,  that  they  were  all  put 
to  death;  it  was  not  safe  to  enslave  these  men,  despite  the 
value  of  their  labor.  Thus  passed  Palmares,  the  Negro 
Numantia,  most  famous  and  greatest  of  the  Brazilian 
quilombos."  17 

17  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  31-32. 


CHAPTER  III 

SLAVERY  IN  ITS  MILD  FORM 

THE  system  of  exploiting  Africans  in  the  West  Indies 
did  not  reach  the  slave  States  until  the  cotton  gin  and  other 
mechanical  appliances  instrumental  in  effecting  the  indus- 
Economic  trial  revolution  made  slavery  seemingly  .profit- 
slavery  in  the  able  in  the  United  States  through  the  cotton 
plantation  system  resulting  therefrom.1  The 
first  slaves  brought  to  the  American  colonies  were  few,  and 
they  served  largely  as  house  servants,  so  closely  attached  to 
the  homes  of  their  masters  that  they  were  treated  like  mem 
bers  of  the  families.  No  restriction  on  the  mental  develop 
ment  of  the  slaves  was  therefore  devised,  as  it  was  deemed 
necessary  to  effect  in  them  whatever  speedy  improvement 
was  possible,  with  a  view  to  increasing  their  efficiency. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  number  of  slaves  decidedly  in 
creased  in  certain  colonies  devoted  to  agriculture.  There 
were  about  6,000  slaves  in  Virginia  in  1700,  and  they  so 
rapidly  multiplied  as  factors  in  the  widely  extending 
tobacco  culture  that  in  1760  one-half  of  the  inhabitants  of 
that  colony  were  slaves.  To  supply  the  need  for  cheap 
labor  in  the  production  of  rice  and  indigo,  the  blacks  in- 

i  Slavery  in  its  first  form  is  briefly  treated  in  Channinp's  History 
of  the  United  States,  II,  336-400,  and  in  A.  B.  Hart's  Slavery  and 
Abolition,  Ch.  IV.  The  slaves'  opportunities  for  enlightenment  are 
presented  in  C.  G.  Woodson's  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to 
1861,  18-150.  See  also  Bryan  Edwards'  History  of  the  West  Indies: 
Sir  Harry  Johnston's  The  Negro  in  the  New  World;  and  the  Journal 
of  Negro  History,  I,  132-150,  163-216,  243-264,  399-435:  II,  78-82, 
105-125,  186-191;  229-251,  411-422,  429-430;  III,  1-21,  22-28,  33-44, 
45-54,  55-89,  211-328,  335-353,  381-434. 

34 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form 


35 


creased  so  fast  in  South  Carolina  after  1730  that  slaves 
soon  exceeded  the  whites  and  outnumbered  them  two  to  one 
in  1760.  This  increase  tended  to  degrade  the  position  of 
the  white  servant,  to  "cause  pride  and  ruin  the  industry 
of  our  white  people,  who,  seeing  the  race  of  poor  creatures 
below  them,  looked  down  upon  them  as  if  they  were  slaves." 
In  1756  Andrew  Burnaby  reported  that  the  people  of  Vir 
ginia  hardly  regarded  the  Indians  and  Negroes  as  human 
beings,  and  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  convict  a  white 
man  for  killing  a  Negro  or  an  Indian.2 

There  were  not  many  slaves  in  the  northern  part  of  the 

United  States.  Pennsyl 
vania  had  a  considerable 
number,  however,  for  Wil 
liam  Penn  himself  owned 
slaves.  A  few  toiled  on 
the  farms  along  the  Hud 
son,  and  the  number  in  the 
city  of  New  Few  slaves  in 
York  reached  the  North. 
6,000  when  the  whole  popu 
lation  was  40,000.  Boston 
was  one  of  the  centers  in 
New  England  to  which 
some  Negroes  were  brought, 
but  a  still  larger  number 
doubtless  landed  at  the 
ports  connecting  more  closely  with  the  West  Indies.  Many 
of  these  went  to  Newport  and  thence  they  gradually  scat 
tered  to  other  points.  In  1748  South  Kingston  had  1,405 
whites,  381  Negroes  and  193  Indians.  New  England,  how 
ever,  because  of  its  economic  condition,  never  became  the 
home  of  many  slaves ;  for  in  1770,  when  there  were  697,624 
slaves  in  the  thirteen  States,  only  3,763  of  these  were  in 


THE  DASH  FOR  LIBERTY 


2  Andrew  Burnaby,  Travels  Through  North  America,  p.  31. 


36  The  Negro-  In  Our  History 

New  England.  At  that  time  36,323  of  the  slave  population 
lived  in  the  Middle  States  and  656,538  in  the  South. 

The  Negroes,  however,  did  not  yield  to  this  system  with 
out  resistance.  In  New  York,  in  1712,  an  insurrection  of 
slaves  grew  to  such  an  extent  that,  had  it  not  been  for 
timely  aid  from  the  garrison,  the  city  would  have  been 
Early  Negro  burned.  Whites  were  attacked  in  their  homes 
insurrections.  an(j  on  ^he  streets  by  the  blacks  in  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  in  1720.  In  1730  many  slaves  in  this 
colony  actually  armed  and  embodied  to  destroy  the  whites. 
Two  hundred  Negroes  assembled  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Rappahannock  River,  Virginia,  to  kill  the  white  people 
in  a  church,  but  when  the  plot  was  discovered  they  fled. 
In  1723  some  desperate  Negroes  planned  to  burn  the  city  of 
Boston,  and  so  much  fear  was  expected  that  the  city  had  to 
take  extra  precaution  against  "Indians,  Negro  or  Mulatto 
Servants,  or  Slaves."  A  number  of  Negroes  arose  against 
their  masters  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  in  1788,  but  fled  when 
twice  fired  upon,  as  they  were  already  disconcerted  by  a 
disagreement  as  to  time. 

In  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  there  occurred  an  insurrection 
of  the  blacks  in  1730,  occasioned  by  the  rumor  that  Governor 
Spottswood  had  arrived  with  instructions  to  free  all  persons 
who  had  been  baptized.  Five  counties  sent  forth  armed 
Eighteenth  men  w^  orc^ers  to  kill  the  slaves  if  they 
Century  refused  to  submit.  That  year  a  Negro  in 

uprisings.  Maiden,  Massachusetts,  plundered  and  burned 
his  master's  home  because  he  was  sold  to  a  man  in  Salem, 
whom  he  disliked.  In  1731  slaves  being  imported  from 
Guinea  by  George  Scott  of  Rhode  Island  asserted  themselves 
and  murdered  three  of  the  crew.  Captain  John  Major  of 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  in  charge  of  a  cargo  of 
slaves,  was  murdered  with  all  of  his  crew  the  following 
year  by  slaves  carried  on  this  same  route.  Captain  Beers 
of  Rhode  Island,  and  all  his  unfortunate  coworkers  except 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form 


37 


two,  suffered  the  same  fate  when  on  a  similar  voyage  a  few 
years  later.3 

In  1741  there  broke  out  a  formidable  insurrection  of 
slaves  in  New  York  City.  To  repress  this  uprising  thir 
teen  slaves  were  burned  alive,  eighteen  were  hanged,  and 
eighty  transported.  Two  of  those  exiled  were  sent  to  the 
West  Indies,  and  it  became  a  custom  thereafter  The  New  York 
for  persons  having  "any  Negro  men,  strong  Plot  of  1741- 
and  hearty,  though  not  of  the  best  moral  character,"  to 


s'eft  enfui  de  chezles  Souffignes,  la  nuit  du  12 

courint,  Un  M«$re  Bfela»e  nooime  POMPE',  d'tfrsviron  cin«j  pieds  cimj  pmsct* 
«r»  ?0b«fte.  j  ii  a  rte  achete  dcr  nit*  rente  nt  de  M.  Perm,  negotiant  dt  cctie  tille; 
far  liit  <ja<tn«|  $1  a  dccampe  on  gikt  tt  des  culottes  brumes :  Celui  qui  le  ramencr* 

1T  PIASTRES  de  Recoropcnfe,  ct  tes  frais  rajfonnables'qu'i!  aura  fijts.    Qui- 
k  retires  ctee  tut  fcrapourfuivii  iuivant  ia  derniere  rigucur  de  la  Loi,  par 

JOHNSTON  ar  FURSS. 


T*  UN-AWAY  from  the  Subfcribers, 

in  the  Night  of  the  lath  Iiift.  a  Sailor  Negro  Slave  name* 
POMPEY",  about  5  Fecf  5  inches  high,  and  is  Rotmft  j  fee  was  lately 
w"M>;ht  ot"  Mr.  Perrj*,  Merchant  in  this  Town  j  had  on  when  he  w'«yt 
ay  a  brown  Jacket  and  Breeches,  Whoever  brings  him  to  the  Sab* 
ftriber*  fh*ll  have  £  IGHT  DOLL  A  R  S  Reward,  and  rcafoaable 
Citsrf£i  paid.  Any  Perfon  harbouring  him  will  be  pro/edited  accor-* 
din^  to  the  utmoft  Rigour  of  the  La»-f  by 

'JOHNSTON  &  P^RSS. 


AN  ADVERTISEMENT  OF  A  RUNAWAY  SLAVE 

brand  them  as  subjects  of  transportation  to  the  West  Indies. 
In  1754  C.  Croft  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  had  two 
of  his  female  Negroes  burned  alive  because  they  set  fire 
to  his  buildings.  In  1755  Mark  and  Phillis,  slaves  of  John 
Codman  of  Charleston,  having  learned  that  their  master 
had  by  his  will  made  them  free,  poisoned  him  that  they 
might  expedite  the  matter.  Mark  was  hanged  and  Phillis 
was  burned  alive.4 

3  What  the  first  slaves  did  to  get  rid  of  their  masters  is  sketched 
in  Joshua  Coffin's  Slave  Insurrections. 

*  /bid.,  p.  8. 


38  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

In  spite  of  these  uprisings,  however,  the  slave  population 
continued  to  increase,  and  this  result  was  not  strange; 
for  in  1770  there  were  in  England  itself  not  less  than  15,000 
Slavery  in  slaves  brought  in  by  traders  as  attendants  and 
England.  servants.  There  was  no  decided  check  to  this 

influx  until  the  famous  Somerset  decision.  Somerset  had 
run  away  from  his  master  in  Virginia.  When  captured  he 
was  to  be  shipped  to  Jamaica,  where  he  was  to  be  sold.  A 
writ  was  procured  by  Gran- 
ville  Sharp,  however,  and 
there  followed  a  hearing 
which  finally  brought  the 
question  before  Lord  Mans 
field,  who  gave  the  opinion 

The  Somerset  that  the  state 
decision.  of  a  slave  is 

so  odious  that  it  can  be 
supported  only  by  positive 
law  to  that  effect,  which 
did  not  exist  in  England.5 
He  therefore  ordered  the 
slave  to  be  discharged.  Lib 
eral  as  this  decision  was, 
however,  it  did  not  seem  GBANVILLE  SHARP 

to  have  any  effect  on  the  colonies,  although  the  struggle 
for  the  rights  of  man  in  this  country  tended  to  do  much 
to  direct  attention  to  the  condition  of  the  Negro. 

There  were  then  in  the  American  colonies  many  slaves 
whose  condition  constituted  an  exception  to  the  rule, 
and  the  slaves  as  a  whole  were  much  better  treated  at 
that  time  than  they  were  during  the  nineteenth  century. 
Exceptional  Most  of  them  were  given  some  opportunity 
slaves.  for  enlightenment  and  religious  instruction. 

Embracing  these  opportunities,  many  of  them  early  estab- 

6  Hurd,  Freedom  and  Bondage,  I,   189-191. 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form  39 

lished  themselves  as  freemen,  constituting  an  essential  factor 
in  the  economic  life  of  their  communities.  Some  became 
artisans  of  peculiar  skill,  others  obtained  the  position  of 
contractors,  and  not  a  few  became  planters  themselves, 
owning  extensive  estates  and  numbers  of  slaves.  Sir 
Thomas  Gage  found  a  number  of  such  planters  of  color  in 
Guatemala  in  the  seventeenth  century;  the  mixed  breeds 
of  Louisiana  afforded  a  number  of  this  type,  and  the  Eng 
lish  colonies  along  the  coast  were  no  exception  to  this  rule. 
John  Cassor,  probably  one  of  the  Negroes  brought  over  by 
the  Dutch  in  1619,  became  an  owner  of  slaves  in  Virginia. 
Andrew  Bryan,  a  Negro  Baptist  preacher,  was  widely 
known  as  a  slaveholder  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  before  1790. 
This  attitude  resulted  largely  from  the  number  of  white 
men  who  became  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Negroes 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Among 
these  were  Paul  le  June,  a  Jesuit  missionary  The  clergy  and 
in  Canada,  Le  Petit  and  Francois  Phillibert  the  Macks. 
Watrum  of  the  same  sect  in  Louisiana,  Alphonso  Sandoval 
in  Havana,  Morgan  Goodwyn  in  Virginia,  Thomas  Bacon  in 
Maryland,  and  George  Keith  in  Pennsylvania.  Some  of 
these  liberal  workers  cooperated  with  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  to  which  the 
Negroes  were  indebted  for  most  of  their  early  enlighten 
ment.  These  reformers  contended  that  the  gospel  was  sent 
also  to  the  slaves,  who  should  be  prepared  by  mental  develop 
ment  to  receive  it.  With  the  increasing  interest  in  educa 
tion,  it  became  more  restricted  to  the  clergy  and  such  other 
well  chosen  persons  recommended  by  them  and  attached 
to  the  churches.  The  impetus  given  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel  among  the  crude  colonists  settling  in  America  re 
sulted  also  in  the  proselyting  of  the  Negroes  who  were 
then  being  brought  from  the  jungles  of  Africa  in  increasing 
numbers.  It  was  soon  evident,  however,  that  little  could  be 
effected  in  the  enlightenment  of  these  blacks  without  first 


40  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

teaching  them  the  English  language.  In  almost  every  case, 
therefore,  during  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  clergy 
undertook  the  teaching  of  the  gospel  among  the  blacks,  it 
involved  also  extensive  instruction  in  the  fundamentals  of 
education,  that  their  message  might  have  the  desired  effect.9 

There  was,  therefore,  in  America  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  a  sort  of  slavery  differing  materially  from  that  of 
the  nineteenth.7  In  fact,  the  Negroes  were  about  as  well 
Eighteenth  provided  with  schools  as  the  whites  in  some 
Century  of  the  colonies.  The  first  school  for  the  educa 

tion  of  the  whites  in  the  Carolinas  was  estab 
lished  in  1716,  and  a  school  for  the  education  of  the  Negroes 
was  established  about  one  generation  later.  There  were 
in  a  few  colonies,  schools  not  only  for  free  Negroes  but  for 
slaves,  who  were  sometimes  taught  in  the  classes  with  the 
children  of  their  masters.  In  some  cases,  when  the  Negroes 
experienced  sufficient  mental  development  to  qualify  as 
teachers  themselves,  they  were  called  upon  to  serve  their 
masters'  children  in  this  capacity.  There  were  schools  for 
Negroes  in  almost  all  of  the  cities  and  towns  where  they 
were  found.8 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  Negroes  that  many  schools  of 
the  middle  colonies  were  conducted  by  the  indentured  ser 
vant  class  of  low  estate.  It  looks  rather  strange  that  our 
Convicts  as  fathers  should  commit  to  the  care  of  the  con- 
teachers,  victs,  who  had  been  taken  from  the  prisons  in 
England  and  indentured  in  America,  the  task  of  educating 
their  children.  Yet  this  was  the  case.  Jonathan  Boucher 
said,  in  1773,  that  two-thirds  of  the  teachers  in  the  colony  of 
Maryland  were  such  felons.9  As  these  were  despised  by 

o  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  87,  233,  361,  and  492,  and 
II,  51. 

7  Woodson,  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  Chapter  II. 

s  Ibid.,  10  to  150. 

9  Jonathan  Boucher,  A  View  of  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the 
American  Revolution,  39. 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form  41 

the  whites  of  the  higher  classes,  they  were  forced  to  asso 
ciate  with  the  Negroes,  who  learned  from  them  how  to  read 
and  write  and  were  thereby  prepared  to  enlighten  their 
own  fellow-men. 

The  location  of  some  of  these  schools  established  for 
Negroes  will  be  of  much  interest.  Samuel  Thomas  undertook 
the  instruction  of  certain  Negroes  in  the  Goose  Creek  Parish 
in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in  1695.  A  Early  schools 
school  for  the  more  extensive  instruction  of  for  Negroes, 
the  Negroes  was  established  there  in  1744,  with  Harry  and 
Andrew,  the  first  of  the  Negro  race  to  be  employed  as 
teachers  in  America.  Further  interest  was  shown  in  the 
enlightenment  of  the  slaves  in  that  section  by  gentlemen 
and  ladies  of  consequence,  and  especially  by  Eliza  Lucas, 
later  the  wife  of  the  renowned  Justice  Pinckney.  The  Rev. 
Mr.  Davies  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  this  work  among 
the  Negroes  in  Virginia,  as  did  Hugh  Neill  and  William 
Sturgeon,  ministers  in  Pennsylvania.  Elias  Neau  had  a 
school  for  Negroes  in  New  York  as  early  as  1706,  and 
Anthony  Benezet  began  to  hold  evening  classes  for  them 
in  Philadelphia  in  1750.  The  settlers  of  New  England 
then  tolerated  the  instruction  of  the  slaves  along  with  their 
own  children. 

The  evidences  of  the  mental  development  of  the  Negroes 
of  that  day  are  found  in  the  words  of  the  masters  them 
selves.  In  offering  slaves  for  sale  and  advertising  for 
fugitives,  masters  spoke  of  their  virtues  as  well  intellectual 
as  their  shortcomings.  Judging  from  what  development, 
they  said  about  them  in  these  advertisements,  one 
must  conclude  that  many  of  the  eighteenth  century  slaves 
had  taken  over  modern  civilization  and  had  made 
themselves  useful  and  skilled  laborers,  with  a  knowl 
edge  of  the  modern  languages,  the  fundamentals  of  mathe 
matics  and  science,  and  acquaintance  with  some  of  the 
professions.  It  was  a  common  thing  to  refer  to  a  slave  as 


42  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

being  smart  and  exhibiting  evidences  of  having  experienced 
most  of  that  mental  development  which  usually  results 
from  what  we  now  call  a  common  school  education.  Some 
spoke  "good  English,"  in  contradistinction  to  others  who 
spoke  "very  much  broken  English."  In  other  cases  the 
fugitive  would  be  credited  with  speaking  "proper  English" 
or  speaking  ' '  very  properly. ' ' 

Brought  in  from  the  West  Indies,  where  they  had  been 
in  contact  with  all  nationalities  of  Europe  and  had  not 
been  restricted  in  their  development,  many  of  these  slaves 
had  picked  up  more  than  the  mere  fragments  of  education. 
Slaves  ft  was  no*  unusual  to  find  a  slave  speaking 

with  some  Spanish,  French  and  English — and  exceed 
ingly  good  English.  William  Moore  had  a 
slave  who  spoke  Swedish  and  English  well.  Philip  French  of 
Philadelphia  had  another  who  spoke  Dutch  and  good  Eng 
lish,  and  John  Williams,  of  the  same  state,  owned  a  Negro 
who  spoke  very  good  English  and  was  very  fluent  in  his 
talk.  Another  type  of  this  sort  was  a  slave  who  escaped 
from  Charleston  in  1799.  He  spoke  both  French  and  Eng 
lish  fluently,  was  very  artful,  and  succeeded  in  passing  as 
a  free  man.  A  better  example  was  a  slave  of  Thomas  May 
of  Maryland,  whom  his  master  considered  plausible  and 
complacent.  He  could  speak  good  English,  a  little 
French  and  a  few  words  of  High  Dutch.  He  had  been  in 
the  West  Indies  and  in  Canada,  serving  as  a  waiting-man 
to  a  gentleman,  and  had  thereby  had  the  opportunity  of 
getting  acquainted  with  the  different  parts  of  America, 
In  addition  to  the  mere  knowledge  of  how  to  express 
themselves  fluently  in  the  modern  tongues,  a  considerable 
number  of  the  fugitives  advertised  in  some  parts  had 
Slaves  able  learned  to  read  and  write.  Advertising  for 
to  read  a  Negro  named  Cato,  Joseph  Hale  said  that 

"he  speaks  good  English  and  can  read  and 
write. ' '    Another  said,  "he  is  an  artfull  fellow  and  can  read 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form  43 

and  write,  and  it  is  probable  that  he  may  endeavor  to  make 
his  escape  out  of  the  Province. ' '  And  still  another  was  de 
scribed  in  the  terms,  "He  can  read  and  write  and  it  is 
likely  that  he  may  have  a  counterfeit  pass. ' '  An  examina 
tion  of  hundreds  of  advertisements  for  fugitive  slaves  dur 
ing  the  eighteenth  century  shows  that  almost  a  third  of 
them  could  read  and  write.10 

Another  evidence  as  to  the  favorable  condition  of  the 
Negroes  during  the  eighteenth  century  is  their  economic 
condition.  The  kind  of  garments  they  wore  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  lived  throw  much  light  on  this  situation.  In 
some  cases  they  lived  in  houses,  enjoying  the  same  comforts 
as  their  masters.  In  other  cases  their  quarters  were  much 
better  than  those  then  provided  for  the  poor  whites  in 
Europe  and  for  the  indentured  servants  in  the  colonies,  as 
some  masters  did  not  take  much  care  of  such  laborers,  since, 
when  their  term  of  service  expired,  they  would  no  longer 
be  of  use  to  them. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  many  masters  in  the  adver 
tisements  for  fugitives,  they  were  in  most  cases  well  at 
tired.  For  example,  a  master  of  Philadelphia  in  1721  said 
that  his  slave  escaped,  wearing  "a  dark  brown  colored  coat 
and  jacket,  a  pair  of  white  fustian  breeches,  a  slaves  well 
gray  milled  cap  with  a  red  border,  a  pair  of  dressed, 
new  yarn  stockings  with  a  pair  of  brown  worsted  under  them 
or  in  his  pockets."  A  slave  owner  in  Maryland  spoke  of 
another  fugitive  as  having  "a  black  cloth  coat,  a  high  hat, 
white  flannel  waistcoat,  a  checked  shirt,  a  pair  of  everlast 
ing  breeches,  a  pair  of  yarn  stockings,  a  pair  of  old  pumps, 
a  worsted  cap,  an  old  castor  hat,  and  sundry  other  clothes. ' ' 
A  Boston  master  in  1761  lost  a  slave,  who  had,  "when  he 
went  away,  a  beaver  hat,  a  green  worsted  coat,  a  close- 
bodied  coat  with  a  green  narrow  frieze  cape,  a  gray  coat,  a 

10  For  a  treatment  of  the  eighteenth  century  slave  see  The  Journal 
of  Xegro  History,  I,  175-189. 


44  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

black  and  white  homespun  jacket,  a  flannel  checked  shirt, 
gray  yarn  stockings,  a  flannel  shirt,  a  bundle  of  other 
clothes,  and  a  violin. ' '  White  persons  at  that  time  were  not 
generally  better  clad.11 

In  not  a  few  other  cases  these  fugitives  are  mentioned  as 
persons  who  had  not  only  an  ample  supply  of  clothing,  but 
considerable  money.  John  Dulin  of  Baltimore,  in  1793, 
advertised  for  a  slave  supplied  with  ample  funds,  and 
Slaves  in  ^he  context  of  the  advertisement  indicates  that 
good  circum-  the  money  was  earned  by  the  slave  while  hir 
ing  his  time.  Referring  to  another  fugitive,  a 
master  said :  "As  I  expect  he  has  a  sum  of  money  with  him, 
probably  he  may  get  some  one  to  forge  a  pass  for  him  and 
pass  as  a  free  man. ' '  Some  Negroes  were  widely  known,  as 
they  were  serving  as  mechanics  and  artisans,  and  a  few  of 
them  became  contractors  on  their  own  account,  overseers  for 
their  masters,  and  finally  freemen  established  in  business 
for  themselves.12 

In  the  absence  of  restrictions  which  characterized  the 
economic  slavery  of  the  following  century,  they  had  entered 
many  of  the  higher  pursuits.  Some  of  these  Negroes  were 
serving  as  teachers  and  preachers,  and  a  few  were  engaged 
Slaves  In  *n  t^ie  Practice  of  medicine,  as  was  then  corn- 
higher  mon  in  this  country.  Referring  to  one  of  his 
slaves,  in  1740,  James  Leonard  of  Philadelphia 
said  he  could  "bleed  and  draw  teeth,  pretending  to  be  a  great 
doctor  and  very  religious,  and  he  says  he  is  a  churchman. ' ' 
In  1797  James  George  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  had 
a  slave  who  passed  for  a  doctor  among  his  people  and,  it 
was  supposed,  practiced  in  that  capacity  about  town.  Ne 
groes  were  serving  as  privateers  and  soldiers  in  the  army 
during  the  colonial  wars  and  had  learned  so  much  about  the 
military  contests  for  possession  in  the  new  world  that  the 

11  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  203. 

12  Ibid.,  203. 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form 


45 


English  feared  that  close  relations  between  the  French  in 
the  West  and  the  slaves  of  the  colonies  along  the  coast  might 
eventually  lead  to  an  understanding  between  the  French 
and  the  slaves  to  the  effect  that  the  latter  might  cross  the 
mountains  into  French  territory. 

Probably  the  most  striking  evidences  of  the   favorable 
situation  of  the  slaves  during  the  eighteenth   century  is 


333*- 


THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  A  RUNAWAY  SLAVE 

their   close   relation   with   the   poor   whites,    the   most    of 
whom,  at  that  time,  were  indentured  servants.    Reduced  to 
the  same  social  status  by  common  lot  in  servi-   slaves  and 
tude,  these  two  classes  were  in  many  cases,  poor  whites, 
especially  in  the  colonies  around  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  about 
equally  treated.     The  slaves  and  the  indentured  servants 
followed  the  same   occupations,  had  the   same  privileges 
and  facilities,  and  experienced  together  the  same  pleasures. 


46  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Living  on  this  common  plane,  these  two  classes  soon  pro 
ceeded  to  intermarry.  In  1720  Richard  Tilghman  of  Phila 
delphia  complained  that  his  mulatto  slave,  Richard  Molson, 
had  rim  away  in  company  with  a  white  woman  named 
Mary,  who,  it  was  supposed,  passed  as  his  wife,  and  with  a 
white  man  named  Garrett  Choise,  and  Jane,  his  wife.  A 
mulatto  servant  man  in  Philadelphia  named  Isaac  Crom 
well  ran  away  with  an  English  servant  woman  named  Anne 
Greene,  in  1745.  Two  years  later,  Ann  Wainrite,  a  servant 
woman  of  New  Castle  County,  ran  away,  taking  with  her  a 
Negro  woman.13 

These  close  relations  between  the  blacks  and  the  inden 
tured  servants  later  caused  unusual  dissatisfaction.  Laws 
were  therefore  enacted  to  prevent  this  interbreeding  of  the 
races.  In  1661  the  preamble,  of  such  a  law  in  Maryland 
Dissatis-  said,  "And  forasmuch  as  divers  freeborn 

faction.  English  women,  forgetful  of  their  free  condi 

tion,  and  to  the  disgrace  of  our  nation,  do  intermarry  with 
negro  slaves,  by  which  also  divers  suits  may  arise,  touching 
the  issue  of  such  women,  and  a  great  damage  doth  befall 
the  master  of  such  Negroes,  for  the  prevention  whereof,  for 
deterring  such  free-born  women  from  such  shameful 
matches,  ~be  it  enacted:  That  whatsoever  free-born  women 
shall  intermarry  with  any  slave,  from  and  after  the  last 
day  of  the  present  assembly  shall  serve  the  master  of  such 
slave  during  the  life  of  her  husband ;  and  that  all  the  issues 
of  such  free-born  women  so  married,  shall  be  slaves  as  their 
fathers  were.  And  be  it  further  enacted:  That  all  the 
issues  of  English,  or  other  free-born  women,  that  have  al 
ready  married  Negroes  shall  serve  the  master  of  their  par 
ents,  till  they  be  thirty  years  of  age  and  no  longer."  14 

This,  however,  did  not  seem  to  prevent  the  miscegenation 

is  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  I,  206. 

14  This  social  status  is  more  extensively  treated  in  The  Journal  of 
Negro  History,  I,  206-216,  and  TT,  335-353. 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form  47 

of  the  two  races,  for  planters  sometimes  married  white 
women  servants  to  Negroes  in  order  to  transform  such  ser 
vants  and  their  offspring  into  slaves.  This  happened  in  the 
case  of  Irish  Nell,  a  servant  woman  brought  to  Miscege- 
Maryland  by  Lord  Baltimore  and  sold  later  to  nation, 
a  planter  when  the  proprietor  returned  to  England.  The 
proceedings  instituted  to  obtain  freedom  for  her  offspring 
by  her  Negro  husband  occupied  the  attention  of  the  courts 
of  Maryland  for  a  number  of  years,  after  which  the  peti 
tion  was  finally  granted.  This  procedure  was  especially 
legislated  against  in  1681,  by  a  measure  which  penalized 
this  custom  then  obtaining  among  the  planters.  The  inter 
breeding  of  the  races,  however,  in  spite  of  the  laws  against 
it,  continued.  The  public  was  burdened  with  so  many 
illegitimate  mulatto  children  that  it  became  necessary  to 
frame  laws  compelling  the  persons  responsible  to  maintain 
these  unfortunate  waifs,  and  making  the  Negroes  or  the 
white  persons  concerned  servants  or  slaves  for  a  certain 
number  of  years. 

In  Virginia  it  was  necessary  to  take  the  same  action. 
Hugh  Davis  was  whipped  there  in  1630  because  he  was 
guilty  of  defiling  his  body  by  lying  with  a  Negro.  In  1622 
the  colony  imposed  fines  for  fornication  with  a  Negro,  but 
did  not  restrict  intermarriage  until  1691.  Ac-  Efforts  to 
cording  to  this  law,  if  any  free  English  woman  separate 
should  have  a  bastard  child  by  a  Negro  or  theraces- 
mulatto,  she  should  pay  the  sum  of  fifteen  pounds  sterling, 
and  in  default  of  such  payment  she  should  be  taken  into 
the  possession  of  the  church  wardens  and  disposed  of  for 
five  years,  and  such  illegitimate  children  should  be  bound 
out  as  servants  until  they  reached  the  age  of  thirty.  If  the 
woman  in  question  happened  to  be  already  in  servitude,  five 
years  were  added  to  the  term  for  which  she  was  then  bound. 
This  same  law  was  further  elaborated  and  extended  by  the 
Virginia  law  of  1753.  Here,  however,  it  developed,  just  as 


48 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


in  the  case  of  Maryland,  that  these  laws  failed  to  remedy  the 
prevailing  evil,  and  that  State  found  itself  with  an  unusually 
large  number  of  illegitimate  mulatto  children  on  its  hands. 
The  officials  hit  upon  the  plan  of  binding  them  out,  as  was 
done  in  the  case  of  David  James  in  1727,  one  Malachi 
on  a  plantation,  and  another  free  Negro  in  Norfolk 
County  in  1770. 


ENTERTAINMENT 

North  Carolina  also  undertook  to  put  an  end  to  this 
miscegenation.  That  colony  provided  in  1715  for  the  usual 
laws  restricting  the  intercourse  of  the  two  races.  Clergy 
men  officiating  at  mixed  marriages  were  penalized.  These 
precautions,  however,  failed  to  meet  the  requirements,  and 
the  custom  continued  in  North  Carolina  just  as  it  had  else 
where,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  law  of  1741  legis 
lated  against  "that  abominable  mixture  and  spurious  issue, 


Slavery  In  Its  Mild  Form  49 

which  hereafter  may  increase  in  this  government  by  white 
men  and  women  intermarrying  with  Indians,  Negroes,  Mu- 
lattoes  or  Mustees."  It  was  enacted  that  if  any  man  or 
woman,  being  free,  should  intermarry  with  such  persons,  he 
should  be  fined  fifty  pounds  for  the  use  of  the  parish,  and 
any  white  servant  woman  found  guilty  of  such  conduct 
should  have  two  years  of  service  in  addition  to  the  time  for 
which  she  was  already  bound  out. 

This  custom  obtained  in  other  parts  where  the  Negroes 
were  found  in  smaller  numbers,  and  because  of  the  scarcity 
of  such  population  was   checked  with   greater  difficulty. 
Massachusetts  enacted  a  law  against  it  in  1705.     Pennsyl 
vania  took  action  in  1725.     These  laws  were    Difficulties 
extended  and  made  more  rigid  in  the  course  of    in  separating 
time,  as  the  custom  gave  more  and  more  dis-   tneraces- 
satisfaction.     It  was  a  long  time,  however,  before  it  had 
very  much  effect  in  New  York,  and  still  longer  in  Pennsyl 
vania.     This  intermixture   endured,   and   when   in   1780, 
during  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of  man,  this  law  was 
repealed,   mixed   marriages   became   common.     But   when 
the  ardor  of  the  revolutionary  leaders  had  become  much 
diminished  towards  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
there  set  in  a  decided  reaction  against  this  miscegenation. 
It  was  therefore  extensively  agitated  throughout  communi 
ties  where  Negroes  were  found  in  large  numbers,  and  vari 
ous  petitions  came  from  those  sections  praying  that  inter 
marriage  of  the  whites  and  blacks  be  pro-  Agitation 
hibited.     The   first   petition   of   consequence  against 
came  from  Green  County  in  1820.     Such  a  **««««**». 
marriage  was  the  cause  of  a  riot  in  Columbia  in  1834,  and 
another  of  a  riot  in  Philadelphia  in  1849.     In  1838  mem 
bers    of    the    Constitutional    Convention    engaged    in    a 
heated    discussion    of    the    custom.     The    agitation,    how 
ever,   was   generally   ineffective,   for  race   admixture   con 
tinued,    as    is    evidenced    by    the    fact    that    one-fifth    of 


50  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

the  Negroes  in  the  State  in  1800  were  mulattoes  and 
that  in  1860  this  proportion  had  increased  to  one-third. 

Persons  who  professed  seriously  to  consider  the  future 
of  slavery,  therefore,  saw  that  miscegenation,  and  especially 
the  concubinage  of  white  men  with  their  female  slaves,  in 
troduced  a  mulatto  race  whose  numbers  would  become  dan- 
The  Danger  of  gerous  ^  the  affections  of  their  white  parents 
miscegenation  were  permitted  to  render  them  free.  The 
Americans  of  the  future  would  thereby  be 
come  a  race  of  mixed  breeds  rather  than  a  white  and  a 
black  population.  As  the  lust  of  white  persons  for  those 
of  color  was  too  strong  to  prevent  race  admixture,  the 
liberty  of  emancipating  their  mulatto  offspring  was  re 
stricted  in  the  slave  States,  but  the  custom  of  selling  them 
became  common. 

These  laws,  therefore,  eventually  had  their  desired  effect. 
They  were  never  intended  to  prevent  the  miscegenation  of 
the  races,  but  to  debase  to  a  still  lower  status  the  offspring 
of  the  blacks,  who,  in  spite  of  public  opinion,  might  under 
Laws  finally  other  circumstances  intermarry  with  the  poor 
effective.  white  women.  The  more  important  objective, 

too,  was  to  leave  the  women  of  color  without  protection 
against  white  men,  who  might  use  them  for  convenience, 
while  white  women  and  black  men  would  gradually  grow 
separate  and  distinct  in  their  social  relations.  Although 
thereafter  the  offspring  of  blacks  and  whites  did  not  di 
minish,  instead  of  being  gradually  assimilated  to  the  type  of 
the  Caucasian  they  tended  to  constitute  a  peculiar  class, 
commonly  called  people  of  color,  having  a  higher  social 
status  than  that  of  the  blacks,  but  finally  classified,  with  all 
other  persons  of  African  blood,  as  Negroes. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  NEGRO  AND  THE  RIGHTS  OF  MAN 

AFTER  the  patriarchal  form  of  slavery  became  engrafted 
upon  our  civilization,  the  world-wide  struggle  for  the  rights 
gf  man  worked  a  decided  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
the  Negro.  There  had  always  been  some  opposition  to 
slavery  from  the  very  time  it  was  first  introduced.1  The 
founders  of  Pennsylvania  undertook  to  rid  £ariy 
that  colony  of  the  perpetual  servitude  of  the  objections  to 
imported  blacks  by  providing  that  the  children 
should  become  free  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Efforts  were  at 
first  made  to  keep  the  institution  out  of  Georgia,  for  the 
reason  that  slaves  were  not  vigorous  enough  to  furnish  de 
fense  for  a  frontier  colony  and  would  starve  the  poor 
white  laborers.  William  Usselinx  proposed  to  prohibit  its 
introduction  in  the  Swedish  colonies,  because  African  slave 
labor  would  be  less  profitable  than  that  of  the  Europeans. 

More  striking  than  these  arguments  were  those  of  the 
Puritans  and  Quakers,  based  on  religious  principles.     The 
religious  element  believed  in  slavery  as  connected  in  some 
way  with  religion.    Although  not  advocates  of  Religious 
social  equality  for  the  blacks,  the  New  Eng-  bodies  op- 
land  colonists  believed  in  equality  before  God  posec 

i  For  a  lengthy  discussion  see  M.  S.  Locke's  Antislavery  in  Amer 
ica  from  the  Introduction  of  the  African  Slaves  to  the  Prohibition 
of  the  Slave  Trade,  pp.  1-157;  and  C.  G.  Woodson's  The  Education 
of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  Ch.  III.  Valuable  information  may  be 
obtained  from  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  49-68;  Vol. 
II,  pp.  37-50,  83-95,  126-138. 

51 


52  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

and,  therefore,  in  the  freedom  of  the  body.  Having  the 
same  idea,  Roger  Williams  protested  against  the  enslave 
ment  of  Pequot  Indians  in  1637.  John  Eliot  and  Cotton 
Mather  attacked  the  institution  because  of  its  abuses.  In 
1701  Justice  Sewell  presented  his  convincing  argument 
Puritans.  against  it  in  his  essay  entitled  The  Selling  of 

Joseph.  The  Puritans  felt  that  slavery  was  the  particular 
offense  that  called  down  the  avenging  wrath  of  God,  and  not 
wishing  to  make  money  of  it,  sought  at  first  to  restrict  it  to 
lawful  captives  taken  in  just  wars.  They  felt  that  it  was 
perilous  to  salvation  in  that  the  souls  of  the  captives  were 
often  neglected. 

Among  the  Quakers,  who  unlike  the  Puritans,  believed  in 
social  equality  as  well  as  equality  before  God,  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  met  with  more  success.  The  Quakers 
Quakers.  noticed  especially  the  cruel  treatment  of  slaves 

and  the  vices  resulting  from  the  system.  They  also  endeav 
ored  to  prove  that  the  system  was  prejudicial  to  the  interests 
of  all  in  that  it  prevented  the  poor  whites  from  finding  em 
ployment,  promoted  idleness  among  the  rich,  cut  off  the 
immigration  of  industrious  Europeans,  and  precluded 
the  prosperity  of  whites  already  in  the  land. 

These  religious  antislavery  attacks,  of  course,  were  met 
by  various  other  arguments.  Some  said  that  Negroes  were 
slaves  because  of  the  curse  of  Canaan ;  others  because  they 
Proslavery  were  ignorant  and  wicked,  and  might,  there- 
^nfislavery  fore'  reJoice  over  their  opportunity  to  be  led 
arguments.  to  Christ  through  enslavement  by  the  Chris 
tian  white  race.  Ralph  Sandif ord  inquired  :  "If  these  Ne 
groes  are  slaves  of  slaves,  whose  slaves  must  their  masters 
be  ? "  2  Elihu  Coleman,  replying  to  the  argument  that  Ne 
groes  should  be  enslaved  because  of  their  wickedness,  said : 
"If  that  plea  would  do,  I  believe  that  they  need  not  go  far 

2  Ralph  Sandiford,  Brief  Examination,  Ch.  IV,  p.  5. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         ,53 

for  slaves  as  now  they  do. "  3  Seeing  that  the  difference  of 
race  was  the  main  thing,  the  Quakers  of  Germantown,  Penn 
sylvania,  said:  "Now,  though  they  are  black,  we  cannot 
conceive  there  is  more  liberty  to  have  them  slaves,  than  it  is 
to  have  other  white  ones.  There  is  a  saying  that  we  shall  do 
to  all  men  like  as  we  will  be  done  to  ourselves,  making  no 
difference  of  what  generation,  descent  or  color  they  are. 
Here  is  liberty  of  conscience  which  is  right  and  reasonable. 
Here  ought  also  to  be  liberty  of  the  body. ' ' 4  This  argu 
ment  was  further  elaborated  by  George  Keith,  John  Hep 
burn,  William  Burling  and  Benjamin  Lay,  all  of  whom 
were  men  of  influence  in  shaping  the  thought  of  the 
Quakers. 

This  protest  against  slavery  tended  to  become  more  and 
more  religious.  Sandiford  said:  "Shall  we  go  to  Africa 
for  bread  and  lay  the  burden  which  appertains  to  our 
bodily  support  on  their  shoulders?  Is  this  washing  one 
another's  feet,  or  living  by  the  Gospel,  or  Ralph  Sandi- 
maintaining  liberty  and  property?  And  to  ford's  attack, 
live  on  another's  labor  by  force  and  oppression,  is  this  lov 
ing  mercy  ?  And  to  keep  them  slaves  to  us  and  our  posterity 
to  all  eternity,  is  this  walking  humbly  with  God?"5  De 
nouncing  all  slaveholders  as  sinners,  Benjamin  Lay  said: 
"Slaves  are  bound  to  them;  so  are  they  to  the  Benjaminljay 
Devil,  and  stronger,  for  as  death  loosens  one, 
it  fastens  the  other  in  eternal  Torment  if  not  repented  and 
forsaken."  He  styled  as  a  sort  of  devils  that  preach  to  hell 
rather  than  to  Heaven  those  ministers  who,  in  leaving  their 
homes  on  Sunday  to  preach  the  "Gospel  of  glad  tidings  to 
all  men  and  liberty  to  the  captives,  directed  the  slaves  to 

a  Elihu  Coleman,  Testimony,  p.  17. 

4  Germantown  Friends'  Protest  against  Slavery  in  A.  B.  Hart's 
American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,  Vol.  II,  section  102,  pp. 
291-293. 

s  Ralph  Sandiford's  Brief  Examination, 


54  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

work  to  maintain  them  in  pride,  idleness,  laziness  and  full 
ness  of  bread,  and  sins  of  Sodom. ' ' 6 

These  arguments  were  not  merely  empty  protests  but 
ideas  translated  into  action  by  the  Quakers.  They  pro 
moted  manumission  by  individual  owners,  and  by  1713 
Manumission  worked  out  a  definite  scheme  for  the  liberation 
promoted.  Of  {}ie  Africans  and  their  restoration  to  their 
native  land,  after  having  been  prepared  beforehand  by  in 
struction  in  religion  and  the  fundamentals  of  education. 
Their  protests  against  the  purchase  of  Africans  seriously 
impaired  the  market  for  slaves  in  Philadelphia  by  1715,  and 
decidedly  checked  the  importation  of  slaves  into  Pennsyl 
vania  in  1743. 

In  later  years  the  work  of  the  Quakers  became  more 
effective.  Most  of  the  slaves  of  Quakers  in  New  England 
and  the  Middle  States  were  by  moral  suasion  and  religious 
Results  coercion  manumitted  by  the  time  of  the  Amer- 

among  the  lean  Revolution  and  in  the  Southern  States  not 
Quakers.  longl  a£ter  ^  cloge  of  the  centuly.  No  such 

effective  work  was  accomplished  by  any  other  body  of 
Christians.  Among  the  Congregationalists  there  were  heard 
such  protests  as  that  of  Samuel  Hopkins  of  Newport  and 
that  of  Ezra  Stiles,  the  President  of  Yale  College.  Samuel 
Webster  of  Salisbury,  and  Nathaniel  Niles  and  William 
Gordon  of  Roxbury  also  attacked  the  evil,  but  their  group 
did  not  then  make  an  organized  effort  for  the  extermination 
of  the  system. 

These  efforts  in  later  years  became  more  successful,  not 
so  much  because  of  the  forceful  preachments  of  the  sects 
but  on  account  of  the  new  impetus  given  the  movement  by 
forces  set  to  work  during  the  period  following  the  French 
After  the  and  Indian  War  and  culminating  in  the 
French  and  spread  of  the  nascent  social  doctrine  which 
Indian  War.  effected  the  American  Revolution.  The  Brit- 

0  Benjamin  Lay,  All  Slave-Keepers  Apostates,  pp.  92-93. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         55 

ish,  as  a  result  of  the  military  triumph  of  Wolfe  at  Quebec 
and  Clive  in  India,  had  come  into  possession  of  vast  terri 
tory.  Parliament,  under  the  leadership  of  Grenville, 
Townshend  and  North,  hoped  to  incorporate  these  conquests 
into  the  empire  and  compel  them  to  defray  the  expenses  in 
cident  to  the  execution  of  the  plan  by  enforcing  the  Naviga 
tion  Acts,  which  had  all  but  fallen  into  desuetude.  Long 
since  accustomed  to  freedom  from  such  restraint,  the  colo 
nists  began  to  seek  in  law  and  history  facts  with  which  they 
disputed  the  right  of  Parliament  to  tax  America,  and  on  the 
basis  of  which  they  set  forth  theories  justifying  the  re 
ligious,  economic  and  political  freedom  of  man. 

During  this  period  the  colonists  of  the  more  democratic 
order  obtained  first  toleration  and  finally  religious  freedom 
for  their  more  popular  sects.  These  were  the  Quakers, 
Methodists,  Baptists  and  Presbyterians.  Most  Toleration 
of  these  at  that  time  accepted  the  Negroes  as  and  the 
human  beings  and  undertook  to  accord  them  Negro, 
the  privileges  of  men.  For  the  Negroes  this  meant  larger 
opportunities  for  religious  development  and  intellectual 
progress,  and  finally,  citizenship  in  the  more  liberal  colonies, 
when  political  leaders  imbued  with  the  idea  of  the  un- 
alienable  rights  of  man  joined  these  religious  bodies  in  the 
struggle  for  the  freedom  of  the  Negroes.  These  efforts  of 
religious  groups,  formerly  operating  independently  along 
parallel  lines,  finally  culminated  as  one  united  movement 
when  political  leaders,  impelled  by  the  spirit  of  universal 
liberty,  joined  hands  with  theologians  and  humanitarians 
to  translate  these  theories  into  vigorous  action. 

In  this  struggle  appeared  some  of  the  most  forceful  and 
logical  protagonists  who  united  the  religious  protests  with 
that  of  the  rights-of-man  theory  justifying  universal  liberty. 
In  1767  Nathaniel  Appleton  insisted  that  the     The  Rights 
slaves  should  not  only  "be  treated  with  a  re-      of  man. 
spect  agreeable"  but  that  the  institution  should  be  abol- 


56  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ished.  If  the  West  Indies,  as  some  then  contended,  could 
not  be  cultivated  without  slave  labor,  "let  them  sink  then," 
said  he,  "for  it  is  more  honorable  to  seek  a  support  by 
begging  than  by  theft."7  Anthony  Benezet,  a  French 
Huguenot,  who,  in  Philadelphia,  became  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  because  of  their  antagonism  to  slavery, 
boldly  attacked  the  institution  and  the  slave  trade  as  in 
consistent  with  man's  natural  rights.  John  Woolman,  one 
of  the  fathers  of  the  Friends,  carried  the  rights-of-man 
theory  to  its  logical  conclusion,  insisting  that  liberty  is  the 
right  of  all  men,  and  that  slaves  being  fellow-creatures  of 
their  masters  had  a  natural  right  to  be  free  to  discharge  the 
functions  of  citizenship. 

Playing  their  part  in  the  antislavery  drama,  the  Presby 
terians  took  the  position  that  slavery  was  wrong  because  it 
subjected  the  will  of  the  slave  to  that  of  the  master.  The 
Presbyterians.  Baptists  often  attacked  the  institution  with 
such  zeal  that  some  of  them  became  known  as  the  Emanci 
pating  Baptists.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  in 
fluenced  by  John  Wesley,  declared  at  its  conference  in  1786 : 
"We  view  it  as  contrary  to  the  golden  law  of  God  and  the 
prophets,  and  the  unalienable  rights  of  mankind,  as  well  as 
every  principle  of  the  Revolution,  to  hold  in  deepest  abase 
ment,  in  a  more  abject  slavery  than  is  perhaps  to  be  found 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  except  America,  so  many  souls 
that  are  capable  of  the  image  of  God. ' ' 8  Strenuous  efforts 
were  then  made  to  excommunicate  slaveholders  and  espe 
cially  those  known  as  ministers.9 

This  success,  however,  was  not  necessarily  due  to  the 

7  Nathaniel  Appleton,  Considerations  on  Slavery,  p.  19. 
s  Lucius   Matlock,  History  of  American   Slavery  and  Methodism. 
p.  29. 

a  While  the  Quakers,  however,  discouraged  the  growth  of  the 
institution  among  their  people,  and  actually  exterminated  it,  the 
other  sects  kept  the  question  in  its  agitated  state  until  it  finally 
divided  several  of  them  before  the  Civil  War. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         57 

work  of  the  clergy  of  the  liberal  sects.    It  was  their  effort 
supported  by  these  political  leaders  who  applied  the  prin 
ciples  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to     Political 
the  Negro.      The   same  theological   doctrines     leaders  and 
and  political  theories  which  impelled  the  colo-     the  Negro- 
nists  to  rise  against  the  home  country  to  establish  the  free 
government  and  religious  liberty  for  which  they  left  their 
homes  in  Europe,  caused  them  also  to  contend  that  it  was 
wrong  for  the  whites  to  exploit  the  blacks.    In  many  cases 
the  foremost  advocates  of  the  rights  of  the  colonists  were 
also  advocates  of  the  riglit  of  the  Negroes  to  be  free,  al 
though  there  were  many  who  contended  that  the  principles 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  apply  to  the 
Negroes,  as  slaves  were  not  constituent  members  of  our 
society. 

Finding  it  difficult  to  harmonize  their  holding  men  in 
bondage  with  the  assertion  of  the  right  of  all  men  to  be 
free,  however,  the  revolutionary  leaders  boldly  met  the 
question.  When  James  Otis  was  arguing  the  Meeting 
case  of  the  Writs  of  Assistance,  showing  the  the  issue, 
immunity  of  the  colonists  from  such  violation  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  he  did  not  forget  the  Negroes,  who,  he  said, 
should  also  be  freed.  It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  John 
Adams,  who  heard  the  argument,  shuddered  at  the  doc 
trine  taught  and  the  consequences  that  might  be  derived 
from  such  premises.  Patrick  Henry  soon  discovered  that 
his  own  denunciation  of  the  clergy  and  other  agents  of  roy 
alty  in  America  was  broad  enough  to  establish  the  right 
of  the  Negro  to  freedom,  and  later  expressed  himself  ac 
cordingly. 

Thomas   Jefferson,   the  philosopher   of  the   Revolution, 
found  among  other  grounds  for  the  justification  of  the  re 
volt  aganst  Great  Britain  that  the  King  had   The  position 
promoted  the  slave  trade.    Jefferson  incorpor-  of  Jefferson, 
ated  into  his  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 


58  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ence  an  indictment  of  George  III  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
violated  the  "most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  of  a 
distant  people,  who  never  offended  him,  captivating  them 
into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere  or  to  incur  miserable 
death  in  their  transportation  thither."  Though  not  so 
outspoken,  there  stood  with  Jefferson  almost  all  of  the  fath 
ers  of  the  American  Revolution,  even  those  in  the  South, 
like  Henry  Laurens,  George  Wythe,  George  Mason,  and 
George  Washington. 

This  new  interest  in  the  Negro  during  the  American 
Revolution  secured  to  the  race  an  appreciable  share  in  de 
fending  the  liberty  of  the  country.10  One  cause  of  the 
The  new  Boston  Massacre  was  that  a  slave,  out  of  love 

freedom  and  of  country,  insulted  a  British  officer.  In  the 
the  Negro.  clagh  itgelf  £rispus  Attucks,  another  Negro, 

was  one  of  the  first  four  to  shed  blood  in  behalf  of  American 
liberty.  During  the  war  numbers  of  Negroes,  like  Lemuel 
Haynes,  served  as  minute  men  and  later  as  regulars  in  the 
ranks,  side  by  side  with  white  men.  Peter  Salem  distin 
guished  himself  at  Bunker  Hill  by  killing  Major  Pitcairn, 
a  number  of  other  Negroes  heroically  rescued  Major  Samuel 
Lawrence,  and  Salem  Poore  of  Colonel  Frye's  regiment 
acquitted  himself  with  such  honor  at  the  battle  of  Charles- 
town  that  fourteen  American  officers  commended  him  to 
the  Continental  Congress. 

The  organization  of  Negro  soldiers  on  a  larger  scale  as 
separate  units  soon  followed  after  some  opposition.  The 
reasons  for  timidity  in  this  respect  are  various.  Having 
Negro  units  the  idea  that  the  Negroes  were  savages  who 
proposed.  should  not  be  permitted  to  take  part  in  a 

struggle  between  white  men,  Massachusetts  protested 
against  the  enlistment  of  Negroes.  The  Committee  of 

10  This  military  history  is  well  treated  in  W.  B.  Hartgrove's  The 
Negro  Soldier  in  the  American  Revolution,  in  The  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  T,  pp.  110-131. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         59 

Safety,  of  which  John  Hancock  and  Joseph  Ward  were 
members,  had  the  opinion  that  as  the  contest  then  between 
Great  Britain  and  her  colonies  respected  the  liberties  and 
privileges  of  the  latter,  the  admission  of  any  persons  but 
freemen  as  soldiers  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  princi 
ples  supported  and  would  reflect  dishonor  on  the  colony. 
Although  this  action  did  not  seemingly  affect  the  enlistment 
of  free  persons  of  color,  Washington,  in  taking  command  of 


THE  DEATH  OF  CRISPUS  ATTUCKS  IN  THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE 

the  army  at  Cambridge,  prohibited  the  enlistment  of  all 
Negroes.  The  matter  was  discussed  in  the  Continental  Con 
gress  and  as  a  result  Washington  was  instructed  by  that 
body  to  discharge  all  Negroes,  whether  slave  or  free.  When 
the  enlistment  of  Negroes  came  up  again  in  the  council  of 
the  army,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to  reject  slaves  and  by 
a  large  majority  to  refuse  Negroes  altogether.  By  these 
instructions,  Washington,  as  commander  of  the  army,  was 
governed  late  in  1775. 


60  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Many  of  the  colonists  who  desired  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  support  of  the  Negroes  were  afraid  to  set  the  example, 
Fear  of  thinking  that  the  British  might  outstrip  them 

arming  in  playing  the  same  game  and  might  arm 

Negroes.  ^Q^  ^Q  Indians  and  Negroes  faster  than  the 

colonies  could.  A  few  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  Negroes, 
seizing  the  opportunity,  might  go  over  to  Great  Britain,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  delegates  from  Georgia  to  the  Conti 
nental  Congress,  who  had  grave  fears  for  the  safety  of  the 
South.  They  believed  that  if  one  thousand  regular  troops 
should  proclaim  freedom  to  all  Negroes,  twenty  thousand 
of  them  would  join  the  British  in  a  fortnight. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  had  good  reason  for  so  thinking. 
When  Lord  Dunmore,  Governor  of  Virginia,  was  driven 
from  the  colony  by  the  patriots,  he  summoned  to  his  support 
Negroes  several  hundred  Negroes  to  assist  him  in  re 

armed  by  gaining  his  power,  promising  them  freedom 

t  from  their  masters.  The  British  contemplated 

organizing  a  Negro  regiment  in  Long  Island.  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  proclaimed  in  1779  that  all  Negroes  in  arms  should 
be  purchased  from  their  captors  for  the  public  service  and 
that  every  Negro  who  might  desert  the  " Rebel  Standard" 
should  have  security  to  follow  within  the  British  lines  any 
occupation  which  he  might  think  proper. 

These  plans,  moreover,  were  in  some  parts  actually  car 
ried  out.  The  British  made  an  effort  to  embody  two  Negro 
regiments  in  North  Carolina.  Between  1775  and  1783  the 
Negroes  with  State  of  SoutK  Carolina  lost  25,000  Negroes, 
the  British.  who  went  over  to  the  British.  Probably  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  Negroes  then  in  Georgia  were  lost  to  the 
Americans.  One-third  of  the  men  by  whom  Fort  Cornwallis 
was  garrisoned  at  the  siege  of  Augusta  were  Negroes  loyal 
to  the  English.  A  corps  of  fugitive  slaves  calling  themselves 
the  King  of  England's  soldiers  harassed  for  several  years 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         61 

the  people  living  on  the  Savannah  River,  and  there  was 
much  fear  that  the  rebuffed  free  Negroes  of  New  England 
would  do  the  same  for  the  colonists  in  their  section. 

It  was  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  leaders  of  the  country 
to  recede  from  this  position  of  refusing  to  enlist  Negroes. 
Washington  within  a  few  weeks  revoked  his  order  prohibit 
ing  their  enlistment.     The  committee  in  the        Negroes 
Continental  Congress  considering  the  matter        enlisted, 
recommended  the  reenlistment  of  those  Negroes  who  had 


PETER  SALEM  AT  BUNKER  HILL 

served  faithfully,  and  Congress  was  disposed  to  leave  the 
matter  to  the  commonwealths,  not  wishing  to  infringe  upon 
what  they  called  States'  rights.  Most  men  of  foresight, 
however,  approved  the  recognition  of  the  Negro  as  a  sol 
dier.  James  Madison  suggested  that  the  slaves  be  liber 
ated  and  armed.  Hamilton,  like  General  Greene,  urged 
that  slaves  be  given  their  freedom  with  the  sword,  to  se 
cure  their  fidelity,  animate  their  courage,  and  influence 
those  remaining  in  bondage  by  an  open  door  to  their  emanci- 


62  The  Negro   In   Our  History 

pation.  Henry  Laurens  of  South  Carolina,  then  in  eternal 
dread  of  the  disaffection  of  the  slaves,  said  he  would  advance 
Proposal  of  those  wno  are  unjustly  deprived  of  the  rights 

Henry  Of  mankind  to  a  state  which  would  be  a  proper 

La/uTens. 

gradation  between  abject  slavery  and  perfect 

liberty,  and  would  have  a  corps  of  such  men  uniformly 
clad  and  equipped  to  operate  against  the  British.  John 
Laurens,  the  son  of  Henry  Laurens,  was  permitted  by  the 
Continental  Congress  to  undertake  such  enlistment  in  South 
Carolina,  but  when  he  brought  his  plan  before  the  legis 
lature  he  was  defeated  by  a  "  triple-headed  monster  that 
shed  the  baneful  influence  of  avarice,  prejudice  and  pusil 
lanimity  in  all  our  assemblies. ' J  n 

In  other  parts  of  the  country,  however,  the  interest  in 
the  Negro  was  such  that  they  regained  the  former  standing 
in  the  army.  Free  Negroes  enlisted  in  Virginia,  and  so 

Negro  soldiers  many  slaves  deserted  their  masters  for  the 
in  Virginia.  army  that  the  gtate  enacted  in  1777  a  law 

providing  that  no  Negro  should  be  enlisted  unless  he  had 
a  certificate  of  freedom.  But  later  many  Virginia  slaves, 
with  the  promise  of  freedom,  were  sent  to  the  army  as 
substitutes  for  freemen,  and  to  prevent  masters  of  such 
Negroes  from  reenslaving  them,  the  State  passed  an  act  of 
emancipation,  proclaiming  freedom  to  all  who  had  enlisted 
and  served  their  term  faithfully,  and  empowered  them  to 
sue  in  forma  pauperis,  should  they  thereafter  be  unlawfully 
held. 

In  his  strait  at  Valley  Forge,  Washington  was  induced  by 
General  Varnum  to  enlist  a  battalion  of  Negroes  in  Rhode 
Solving  the  Island  to  fill  his  depleted  ranks.  The  Khode 
th°bsem  in  Island  assembly  acceded  to  this  request,  giv 
ing  every  effective  slave  the  liberty  to  don  the 
uniform  on  the  condition  that  upon  his  passing  muster 

11  Sparks,  Writings  of  George  Washington,  VIII,  322,  323. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         63 


he  would  become  absolutely  free  and  entitled  to  all  the 
wages,  bounties,  and  encouragements  given  to  any  other 
soldier.  Connecticut  undertook  to  raise  a  Negro  regiment, 
and  New  York  in  1780,  promising  masters  the  usual  bounty 
land  to  purchase  their  slaves,  proclaimed  freedom  to  all 
bondmen  thus  enlisting  for  three  years.  This  sort  of 
action  governed  the  enlistment  of  Negroes  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  where  it  operated  to 
exterminate  slavery.  In 
1781  Maryland  resolved 
to  raise  750  Negroes  to 
be  incorporated  with  the 
other  troops.  Massachu 
setts,  at  the  suggestion 
from  Thomas  Kench,  con 
sidered  the  question  of 
organizing  in  separate 
battalions  the  Negroes 
serving  in  the  ranks 
among  white  men,  think 
ing  that  in  units  by  them 
selves  they  would  exhibit 
a  better  esprit  de  corps 
and  that  a  larger  number 
would  enlist;  but  as  the 
suggestion  led  to  a  heated 
debate  in  the  legislature  and  to  blows  in  the  coffee  houses 
of  Boston,  nothing  definite  was  done. 

In  estimating  the  services  rendered  by  the  black  troops 
of  the  American  Revolution,  observers  and  officers  were 
loud  in  their  praise.     Speaking  of  the  valor  displayed  by 
the  Rhode  Island  regiment,  the  Marquis  de      opinions  as 
Chastellux  said :    ' '  At  the  passage  of  the  ferry      to  Negro 
I  met  a  detachment  of  the  Rhode  Island  regi 
ment,  the  same  corps  we  had  with  us  last  summer,  but  they 


LEMUEL  HAYNES,  a  Negro  soldier 
in  the  American  Revolution  and 
later  a  distinguished  Congregational 
preacher  to  white  people  in  New 
England 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


BY    His   EXCELLENCY 
GEORGE    WASHINGTON,    ESQ* 

General  and  Commander  In  Chief  of  the  Forces  of  the  United 
States  of  America. 

TH  K  8  K  arc  to  CERTIFY  that  the  Bearer  hereof 
-•• 


in  the    -x  -.*  v  V  v£>,v?«  >^V  /  .<'  Regiment,  having  faithfully 
ferved  the  United  State*  /*v-  -  <        '£      *x ./'.  ^  -:? 

X'-.-v   /'     ;      /!r>  uluj  IM-JHJ,  titliftfd  fur  the  War  unly,  i* 

hereby  DIHHAHUFI}  Irum  the  Aou-iirau  Army,  , 

O  J  V  1C  N  ai  H  K  A  h    (»  u  4  ft  -r  •  a4*  iJir    ' 


By    Hi  &   I-.  *.<  it, $  t  N  «   , 

'  '      '         ') 

R  Ii  (,'  I  s  i  !   H  t   n  it,  the  |t,...k» 
(*{  the  Regiment, 

(.  "/ 

1     111',    above    ,.       ,      V,   ;".          *'    **— 

h;u  l»tta  iioiiorcd  with  thr,IiyA  J>  <*  J    of    M  Ji  k  t 'J    !-,*,     \XV 
Yctii  faithful  tH'ivuc,   .*  /     ,  '     /,. 


111!',    wuliin    <, M  K  1  I  I   I  (,  ,     {   J     ilwl)   H.,I   avail 
Fkarer  ;u>  a  Difcliarge,  uuul  tin-  K.-fih.  .«u«>ii  o(   ti 
treaty  ol  J*caccj  previous  t«^  whi^h   IJHH,  an«l  ijuii} 
noo  tljcitof  fhaJJ   !M    made,  II*   j*  t<;  lw  .oniuiticd  a«  btiing  oa 
Furlough 

G  K  O  H  O  F       W  ,A  ,s  If  f  N  O  T  0  tf 


FACSIMILE  OF  AN  HONORABLE  DISCHARGE  OF  A  NEGRO  SOLDIER 
FROM  WASHINGTON'S  ARMY 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         65 

since  have  been  recruited  and  clothed.  The  greater  part 
of  them  are  Negroes  or  mulattoes ;  but  they  are  strong,  ro 
bust  men  and  those  I  have  seen  had  a  very  good  appear 
ance."  Referring  to  the  behavior  of  Negroes  who  fought 
under  General  Greene,  Lafayette  said  that  in  trying  to 
carry  the  commander's  position  the  enemy  repeated  the 
attempt  three  times  and  was  often  repulsed  with  great 
bravery.  One  hundred  and  forty-four  of  the  soldiers  hold 
ing  this  field  were  Negroes.  Speaking  of  the  troops  who 
took  part  in  the  battle  of  Long  Island,  Dr.  Harris,  a  vet 
eran,  said :  ' '  Had  they  been  unfaithful  or  even  given  way 
before  the  enemy,  all  would  have  been  lost.  Three  times 
in  succession  they  were  attacked  with  more  desperate  valor 
and  fury  by  well-trained  disciplined  troops  and  three  times 
did  they  successfully  repel  the  assault,  and  thus  preserved 
our  army  from  capture. ' '  Negro  troops  sacrificed  themselves 
to  the  last  man  in  defending  Colonel  Greene  in  1781  when 
he  was  attacked  at  Point  Bridge,  New  York.  Referring  to 
the  battle  of  Monmouth,  Bancroft  said,  "Nor  may  history 
omit  to  record  that  of  the  Revolutionary  patriots  who  on 
that  day  offered  their  lives  for  their  country  more  than  700 
black  men  fought  side  by  side  with  the  white. ' '  According 
to  Lecky,  "the  Negroes  proved  excellent  soldiers  in  a  hard- 
fought  battle  that  secured  the  retreat  of  Sullivan  when 
they  three  times  drove  back  a  large  body  of  Hessians." 

Some  of  these  Negro  soldiers  emerged  from  the  Revolu 
tion  as  heroes.  A  Negro  slave  of  South  Carolina  rendered 
Governor  Rutledge  such  valuable  services  in  this  war  that 
by  special  act  of  the  legislature  in  1783  his  wife  and  chil 
dren  were  liberated.  Because  of  his  unusual  fortitude  and 
valor  in  battle,  the  State  and  the  people  of  Georgia  honored 
Austin  Dabney,  a  mulatto,  who  took  a  conspicuous  part  in 
many  skirmishes  in  the  South.  Fighting  under  Elijah 
Clark,  he  was  severely  wounded  by  a  bullet  which  in  pass 
ing  through  his  body  wounded  him  for  life.  He  received 


66  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

a  pension  from  the  United  States  Government  and  was  by 
an  act  of  the  legislature  of  Georgia  given  a  tract  of  land. 
He  subsequently  accumulated  considerable  property,  at 
tained  a  position  of  usefulness  among  his  white  neighbors, 
had  the  respect  and  confidence  of  high  officials,  and  died 
mourned  by  all. 

The  result  of  the  increasing  interest  in  the  Negro  was 
that  with  the  exception  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  a 
decided  step  forward  in  the  extermination  of  slavery  was 
taken  during  the  revolutionary  epoch.  The  black  codes  were 
iphe  considerably  moderated  and  laws  facilitating 

progress  of  manumission  were  passed  in  most  of  the 
on'  colonies.  Vermont,  New  Hampshire  and  Mas 
sachusetts  exterminated  the  institution  by  constitutional  pro 
vision;  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  washed  their  hands  of  the  stain  by  grad 
ual  emancipation  acts;  and  the  Continental  Congress  ex 
cluded  the  evil  from  the  Northwest  Territory  by  the  Ordi 
nance  of  1787. 12  So  sanguine  did  the  friends  of  universal 
freedom  become  that  they  thought  that  slavery  of  itself 
would  later  gradually  pass  away  in  Maryland,  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina. 

To   prepare    the    freedmen   for    this   new   opportunity, 

12  Tliis  prohibitory  clause  was: 

There  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said 
territory,  otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crime,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted:  Provided  always,  That  any 
person  escaping  into  the  same,  from  whom  labor  may  be  lawfully 
claimed  in  any  one  of  the  original  States,  such  fugitive  may  be  law 
fully  reclaimed  and  conveyed  to  the  person  claiming  his  or  her  labor 
or  service  as  aforesaid. 

Be  it  ordained  by  the  authority  aforesaid:  That  the  resolutions 
of  the  23d  of  April,  1784,  relative  to  the  subject  of  this  ordinance, 
be,  and  the  same  are  hereby,  repealed,  and  declared  null  and  void. 

Done  by  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  the  13th  day  of 
July  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1787,  and  of  their  sovereignty  and 
independence  the  twelfth. 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man         67 

schools  were  established  in  almost  all  large  groups  in  towns 
and  cities.  Efforts  were  made  to  apprentice  such  blacks 
to  trades,  to  place  them  in  the  higher  pur-  Preparation  for 
suits  of  labor,  and  to  develop  among  them  a  emancipation, 
class  of  small  farmers  who  might  be  settled  on  unoccupied 
lands  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  In  fact,  this  was  the  halcyon 
day  of  the  Negro  race  prior  to  its  emancipation.  Up  to  the 
closing  years  of  the  American  Revolution  never  had  so 
much  been  done  in  behalf  of  the  blacks,  never  had  there 
been  such  opportunities  for  developing  their  power  to 
function  as  citizens.  And  so  much  of  an  impetus  was  then 
given  to  the  cause  of  the  Negroes  that  despite  the  reac 
tion  following  this  epoch  they  retained  their  citizenship 
intact  in  most  parts  of  the  North  and  even  late  in  parts  of 
the  South,  as  was  the  case  in  North  Carolina,  where  the 
Negroes  voted  until  1834. 

The  first  impulse  to  general  improvement  of  the  Negroes 
came  through  the  new  sects,  which  in  this  social  upheaval 
attained  not  only  toleration  but  freedom.  As  there  was 
less  ground  for  antagonism  to  the  development  Religious 
of  the  Negroes  in  this  direction,  many  of  freedom, 
them  became  socially  equal  with  the  white  communicants, 
and  some  Negro  churchmen  trained  by  pious  whites 
preached  to  audiences  of  the  Caucasian  race.  Among  these 
was  Jacob  Bishop,  who  so  impressed  his  co-workers  that  he 
was  at  the  close  of  the  century  made  pastor  of  Jacob  Bishop, 
the  first  Baptist  church  (white)  of  Portsmouth,  Virginia. 
"William  Lemon  was  at  this  time  preaching  to  a  white  con 
gregation  at  Pettsworth  or  Gloucester,  Virginia.  Some 
recognition  by  whites  was  given  during  these  years  to 
Henry  Evans  and  Ralph  Freeman  of  North  Carolina,  Harry 
Hosier  of  Philadelphia,  Black  Harry  of  St.  Eustatius,  and 
Lemuel  Haynes,  an  intelligent  Negro  preacher  to  white 
people  in  Connecticut.  Andrew  Bryan,  contemporary  with 


68 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


rnd  Andrew 
Bryan. 


Jacob  Bishop,  preached  occasionally  to  the  whites,  but  de 
voted  his  life  to  religious  work  among  his  own  people.  He 
George  Liele  was  tne  successor  to  George  Liele,  who,  under 
the  rule  of  the  British  in  Savannah,  had 
founded  the  first  Baptist  church  of  that  city. 
He  went  with  them  to  Jamaica,  where  he  established  the  first 
Baptist  church  in  that  colony.  Bryan's  task,  however,  was 

not  so  easy  as  that  of  Liele. 
The  Americans,  who  suc 
ceeded  the  British  in  au 
thority  at  Savannah,  per 
secuted  Bryan,  whipping 
him  whenever  he  attempted 
to  preach.  In  the  course 
of  time,  however,  he  ob 
tained  the  support  of  a 
few  kind-hearted  whites, 
who  interceded  in  his  be 
half  and  secured  for  him 
the  permission  to  preach 
without  interruption.  His 
work,  thereafter,  made  pro 
gress,  and  extended  to  Au 
gusta  through  the  coopera 
tion  of  Henry  Francis  and  others. 

Tn  the  circle  of  intellectual  Negroes  there  stood  out  two 
characters  more  prominent  than  these  churchmen.  These 
were  Phyllis  Wheatley  13  and  Benjamin  Banneker.14  Phyl 
lis  Wheatley  was  a  slave  in  a  Boston  family  that  gave  her 
Phyllis  every  opportunity  for  improvement.  After  re- 

Wheatley.         ceiving  instruction  for  a  few  years  she  mas 
tered  the  fundamentals  of  educatio.il  and  made  unusual 

is  R.  R.  Wright,  Phyllis  Wheatley. 

14  Henry  E.  Baker,  Benjamin  Banneker  in  The  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  99-118. 


PHYLLIS  WHEATLEY 


The  Negro  and  the  Rights  of  Man 


69 


A 


..°*u*     AK1>     Y1R.CH 

MAN 


C 


advancement  in  the  study  of  Latin  and  History.  In  the 
very  beginning  of  her  career  she  exhibited  the  tendency 
to  write  poetry.  While  present-day  criticism  would  not 
classify  her  as  a  poet,  she  was,  in  her  time,  a  writer  of  such 
interesting  verse  that  she  was  brought  into  contact  with 
some  of  the  best  thinkers  of  that  period.  All  of  them  were 
not  seriously  impressed 
with  her  actual  contribu 
tion  to  literature,  but  they 
had  'to  concede  that  she 
had  decidedly  demon 
strated  that  Negroes  had 
possibilities  beyond  that  of 
being  the  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water  for 
another  race. 

Benjamin  Banneker  was 
a  character  of  more  genius 
than  that  with  which  many 
of  his  white  contemporaries 
were   endowed.       Born    in 
Maryland,  of  a  white  wo 
man  and  black  father,  he 
was  free,  and  at  that  time 
exercised  most  of  the  privi 
leges  accorded  white  men.     He  was  in  a  position  to  attend 
an  elementary  school,  and  upon  the  moving  of       Benjamin 
the  well  known  Ellicotts  to  his  neighborhood        Banneker. 
about    the    time    he    was    reaching    his  majority,    Ban 
neker  had  made  such  advancement  in  science  and  mathe 
matics  that  Mr.  George  Ellicott  supplied  him  with  books. 
Studying  these  works,  Banneker  developed  into  one  of  the 
most  noted  astronomers  and  mathematicians  of  his  time. 
He  was  the  first  of  all  Americans  to  make  a  clock,  and 
published  one  of  the  first  series  of  almanacs  brought  out  in 


BENJAMIN  BANNEKEB'S  ALMANAC 


70  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

the  United  States.  These  meritorious  achievements  made 
him  so  prominent  that  he  was  sought  and  received  by  some 
of  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  United  States.  Among1 
these  were  James  McHenry,  once  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States',  and  Thomas  Jefferson.  The  latter  was  so 
impressed  with  his  worth  that  he  secured  for  him  a  place 
on  the  commission  that  surveyed  and  laid  out  Washington 
in  the  District  of  Columbia. 


CHAPTER  V 

REACTION 

THE  impetus  given  the  uplift  of  the  Negroes  during  the 
struggle  for  the  independence  of  the  country  was  gradually 
checked  after  1783,  when  the  States  faced  the  problem  of 
readjustment.  In  the  organization  of  governments  the 
States  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  Emancipation 
necessary  to  restrain  men  to  maintain  order  checked, 
and  that  they  had  to  depart  from  some  of  the  theories 
on  which  the  Revolution  was  fought.  In  the  elimination  of 
the  impracticable  from  the  scheme  of  reconstruction  after 
making  peace  with  Great  Britain,  the  proposal  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  was  no  longer  generally  heeded. 
In  those  colonies  where  the  Negroes  were  not  found  in  large 
numbers  they  were  emancipated  without  much  opposition 
and  some  of  them  were  made  citizens  of  the  new  States. 
But  in  those  where  the  Negroes  constituted  a  considerable 
part  of  the  population  there  followed  such  a  reaction 
against  the  elevation  of  the  race  to  citizenship  that  much 
of  the  work  proposed  to  promote  their  welfare  and  to  pro 
vide  for  manumission  was  undone.1 

Certain  States  of  the  upper  South  did  support  the  move- 

iM.  S.  Locke,  Antislavery  in  America,  pp.  157-166;  K.  H.  Porter, 
A  History  of  Suffrage  in  the  United  States,  Chs.  II  and  III.  C.  G. 
Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  Chs.  VI  and 
VII;  and  A.  D.  Adams,  The  Neglected  Period  of  Antislavery  in 
America,  passim. 

71 


72 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


ment  to  abolish  the  slave  trade,  but  for  economic  rather 
than  for  sentimental  reasons.  The  prohibition  of  the  slave 
Slave  trade  trade  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia  and 
in  the  South.  North  Carolina  did  not  necessarily  show  a 
humanitarian  trend.  The  reasons  for  such  action  were 
largely  economic.  Their  industry  had  reached  a  settled 
state,  and  the  influx  of  more  slaves,  they  believed,  would 
lead  to  a  decrease  in  the  value  of  slaves,  cause  the  supply  of 
Southern  products  to  exceed  the  demand,  drain  the  States 
of  money,  and  constitute  a  sinister  influence  on  Negroes 
already  broken  in.  If  imported  in  large  numbers  the  trade 

might  force  upon  the  com 
munities  a  larger  number 
than  could  be  supported, 
and  instead  of  promo 
ting  slavery  might  make 
instant  abolition  neces 
sary.  Furthermore,  the 
successful  rebellion  of  the 
Negroes  in  Santo  Do 
mingo,  led  by  Toussaint 
L  'Ouverture  and  Desa- 
lines,  brought  such  a 
dread  of  servile  insurrec 
tion  among  the  slave 
holders  that  many  of  them 
opposed  the  continuation 
of  the,  slave  trade.  And 
even  in  the  radically  proslavery  South,  as  in  the  case  of 
South  Carolina,  it  was  specifically  provided  that  no  slaves 
should  be  imported  from  this  disturbed  area  in  the  West 
Indies.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  many  refugees  from 
Refugees  Hayti  had  come  to  the  ports  of  Baltimore, 

from  Hayti.  Norfolk,  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  and 
they  sowed  seeds  of  discord  from  which  came  most  of  the 


TOUSSAINT  L'OUVERTURE 


Reaction  73 

uprisings  of  Negroes  during  the  first  three  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century.2 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had  very  little  to  clo 
with  slavery,  as  it  did  not  care  to  interfere  with  the  rights 
of  the  States.  Slavery  as  a  national  question,  however,  ap 
peared  in  the  adoption  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  providing 
for  the  organization  of  the  Northwest  Terri-  Slavery  and 
tory.  The  sixth  clause  of  that  document  the  Ordinance 
provided  that  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  c 
servitude,  except  for  punishment  of  crime,  should  be  per 
mitted  in  the  said  territory.  This  was  enacted,  of  course, 
prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  and  may  seem  to  have  no  bearing  thereon,  but  as  its 
legality  was  questioned  on  the  ground  that  no  such  power 
had  been  granted  to  the  Continental  Congress  by  the  States 
or  by  any  provision  in  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  it 
requires  special  attention.  It  is  of  importance  to  note  that 
it  was  defended  on  the  untenable  ground  that  it  was  a 
treaty  made  by  the  States  forming  the  Confederation  rather 
than  an  agreement  of  the  States  to  be  organized  in  this  ter 
ritory  thereafter.  The  best  which  can  be  said  for  it,  how 
ever,  is  that  it  was  merely  a  legislative  act  of  Congress.3 
The  convention  of  1787  desired  to  take  very  little  interest 
in  the  antislavery  movement  in  the  organization  of  the 
Federal  Government.  Oliver  Ellsworth  of  Connecticut  and 
Elbridge  Gerry  of  Massachusetts  thought  the  The  Conven- 
question  of  slavery  should  be  settled  by  the  tion  of  1787- 
States  themselves.  As  this  question  came  more  prominently 

2  These  uprisings  are  sot  forth  in  Joshua  Coffin's  An  Account  of  the 
Principal  Slave  Insurrections.     See  also  Edwin  V.  Morgan's  Slavery 
in  New  York    (American  Historical  Association   Report,   1895),  pp. 
029-673;    and    E.    B.    Greene's   Provincial   America    (The   American 
Nation ) ,  Vol.  VI,  p.  240. 

3  All  of  these  aspects  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  are  thoroughly  dis 
cussed  in  J.  P.  Dunn's  Indiana  ;  A  Redemption  from  Slavery,  Ch.  VI; 
and  in  Clias.  Thomas  Hickok's  The  Negro  in  Ohio,  chapter  on  the 
Ordinance  of  1787. 


74 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


before  this  body  called  to  frame  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  however,  it  had  to  be  considered  more  seri 
ously,  to  determine  a  method  of  returning  fugitive  slaves, 
the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade,  and  the  apportionment  of 

representation.  When  the 
South  wanted  the  Negroes 
to  be  counted  to  secure 
larger  representation  on 
the  population  basis,  al 
though  it  did  not  want 
thus  to  count  the  blacks  in 
apportioning  federal  taxes, 
some  sharp  debate  ensued, 
but  the  northern  antislav- 
ery  delegates  were  not  so 
much  attached  to  the  cause 
of  universal  freedom  as  to 
advocate  force  their  opinions  on  the 

proslavery  group  and  thus 
lose  their  support  in  organizing  a  more  stable  form  of  gov 
ernment.4  They  finally  compromised  by  providing  for  rep 
resentation  of  the  States  by  two  Senators  from  each,  and  for 
the  representation  of  the  people  in  the  House  by  counting 
all  whites  and  five  Negroes  as  three  whites,  and  by  further 
providing  for  the  continuation  of  the  slave  trade  until  1808, 
when  it  should  be  prohibited,  and  for  a  fugitive  slave  law 
to  secure  slaveholders  in  the  possession  of  their  peculiar 
property. 

Immediately  after  the  Federal  Government  was  organized 
there  seemed  to  be  a  tendency  to  ignore  the  claims  of  the 
Negro.  In  1789  the  Quakers  at  their  annual  meeting  in 
The  Negro  a  Philadelphia  and  New  York  adopted  certain 
negligible  memorials  praying  the  attention  of  Congress 
in  adopting  measures  for  the  abolition  of  the 


BENJAMIN 


factor. 


*  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  381-434. 


Reaction  75 

slave  trade  and,  in  particular,  in  restraining  vessels  from 
being  entered  and  cleared  out  for  the  purpose  of  that  trade. 
There  came  also  a  memorial  to  the  same  effect  from  the 
Pennsylvania  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  bearing 
the  signature  of  its  president,  Benjamin  Franklin.  This 
led  to  much  discussion  of  the  slavery  question,  but  the  me 
morials  were  by  a  vote  of  43  to  11  referred  to  a  special  com 
mittee  which  reported  March  5,  1790.  On  the  8th  the  re 
port  was  referred  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  where  it 
was  debated  a  week.  Several  amendments  were  proposed 
and  given  consideration  in  the  House.  Finally  the  reports 
of  the  special  committee  and  of  the  committee  of  the  whole 
house  were  by  a  vote  of  29  to  25  ordered  to  be  printed  in 
the  Journal  and  to  lie  on  the  table.  The  principle  of  non 
interference  with  slavery  set  forth  in  this  report  determined 
for  a  number  of  years  the  reactionary  attitude  of  Congress 
with  respect  to  slavery.5 

«The  report  of  the  Special  Committee  was:  The  committee  to 
whom  were  referred  sundry  memorials  from  the  People  called 
Quakers;  and  also  a  memorial  from  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for 
promoting  the  Abolition  of  Slavery,  submit  the  following  report: 

That,  from  the  nature  of  the  matters  contained  in  those  memorials/ 
they  were  induced  to  examine  the  powers  vested  in  Congress,  under 
the  present  Constitution,  relating  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and 
are  clearly  of  opinion, 

First,  That  the  General  Government  is  expressly  restrained  from 
prohibiting  the  importation  of  such  persons  "as  any  of  the  States 
now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  until  the  year  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight." 

Secondly,  That  Congress,  by  a  fair  construction  of  the  Constitu 
tion  are  equally  restrained  from  interfering  in  the  emancipation  of 
slaves,  who  already  are,  or  who  may,  within  the  period  mentioned 
be  imported  into,  or  born  within  any  of  the  said  States. 

Thirdly,  That  Congress  have  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the 
internal  regulations  of  particular  States,  relative  to  the  instruction 
of  slaves  in  the  principles  of  morality  and  religion;  to  their  com 
fortable  clothing;  accommodations,  and  subsistence;  to  the  regula 
tion  of  their  marriages,  and  the  prevention  of  the  violation  of  the 
rights  thereof,  or  to  the  separation  of  children  from  their  parents; 
to  a  comfortable  provision  in  cases  of  sickness,  age,  or  infirmity; 
or  to  the  seizure,  transportation,  or  sale  of  free  negroes;  but  have 
the  fullest  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of  the  Legislatures 


76  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Congress  refused  also  to  intervene  in  behalf  of  certain 
manumitted  Negroes  of  North  Carolina,  who  after  having 
been  given  their  liberty  by  the  Quakers  were  again  reduced 
to  slavery.  The  only  action  of  this  sort  taken  by  Congress 
Non-inter-  during  its  early  operation  was  to  pass  the  Fu- 
ventionby  gitive  Slave  Law  of  1793.  This  measure  pro- 
Congress,  vided  that  a  master  might  seize  his  absconding 
slave  taking  refuge  in  another  State,  carry  him  before  any 
magistrate  and  secure  from  that  functionary  authority  to 
return  the  slave.  Congress  refused  on  this  occasion  to  pro 
vide  any  safeguards  to  prevent  the  enslavement  of  free  Ne 
groes.  No  sympathy  could  then  be  expected  from  the  North, 
for  while  that  section  considered  the  institution  an  evil,  it 
had  not  in  the  least  increased  its  love  for  the  Negro,  and 
evidences  of  unrest  among  Negroes  did  not  make  conditions 
more  favorable.  The  North  did  not  want  the  Negroes,  and 
those  southerners  who  had  advocated  their  emancipation 

of  the  several  States,  that  they  will  revise  their  laws  from  time  to 
time,  when  necessary,  and  promote  the  objects  mentioned  in  the 
memorials,  and  every  other  measure  that  may  tend  to  the  happiness 
of  slaves. 

Fourthly,  That,  nevertheless,  Congress  have  authority,  if  they 
shall  think  it  necessary,  to  lay  at  any  time  a  tax  or  duty,  not 
exceeding  ten  dollars  for  each  person  of  any  description,  the  importa 
tion  of  whom  shall  be  by  any  of  the  States  admitted  as  aforesaid. 

Fifthly,  That  Congress  have  authority  to  interdict,  or  (so  far  as 
it  is  or  may  be  carried  on  by  citizens  of  the  United  States,  for 
supplying  foreigners)  to  regulate  the  African  trade,  and  to  make 
provision  for  the  humane  treatment  of  Slaves,  in  all  cases  while  on 
their  passage  to  the  United  States,  or  to  foreign  ports,  as  far  as 
it  respects  the  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

Sixthly,  That  Congress  have  also  authority  to  prohibit  foreigners 
from  fitting  out  vessels,  in  any  port  of  the  United  States,  for  trans 
portation  of  persons  from  Africa  to  any  foreign  port. 

Seventhly,  That  the  memorialists  be  informed,  that  in  all  cases 
to  which  the  authority  of  Congress  extends,  they  will  exercise  it  for 
the  humane  objects  of  the  memorialists,  so  far  as  they  can  be 
promoted  on  the  principles  of  justice,  humanity,  and  good  policy. 

REPORT   OF   THE   COMMITTEE   OF  THE   WHOLE   HOUSE 

The  Committee  of  the  Whole  House,  to  whom  was  committed  the 
report  of  the  committee  on  the  memorials  of  the  People  called  Quak- 


Reaction  77 

were  confronted  with  the  question  as  to  what  should  be 
done  with  them  when  freed. 

The  reaction  in  the  North  was  generally  manifested  in 
the  change  of  the  attitude  of  the  whites  toward  the  blacks, 
who  had  during  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of  man  become 
connected  with  schools  and  churches  throughout  the  sec 
tion.  It  was  therefore  necessary  for  Negroes  to  establish 
independent  churches  of  their  own  like  those  Reaction  in 
founded  by  Andrew  Bryan  in  Georgia  and  the  cllurcn- 
Joseph  Willis  in  Mississippi.  Bearing  it  grievously  that  the 
people  of  color  were  suffering  from  a  militant  prejudice  in 
the  Methodist  church,  Richard  Allen  and  James  Varick  es 
tablished  independent  organizations  out  of  which  developed 
the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  African 

era,  and  of  the  Pennsylvania  Society  for  Promoting  the  Abolition 
of  Slavery,  report  the  following  amendments: 

Strike  out  the  first  clause,  together  with  the  recital  thereto,  and 
in  lieu  thereof  insert,  "That  the  migration  or  importation  of  such 
persons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to 
admit,  cannot  be  prohibited  by  Congress,  prior  to  the  year  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  eight." 

Strike  out  the  second  and  third  clauses,  and  in  lieu  thereof  insert, 
"That  Congress  have  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the  emancipation 
of  slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them  within  any  of  the  States;  it 
remaining  with  the  several  States  alone  to  provide  any  regulations 
therein,  which  humanity  and  true  policy  may  require." 

Strike  out  the  fourth  and  fifth  clauses,  and  in  lieu  thereof  insert, 
"That  Congress  have  authority  to  restrain  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  from  carrying  on  the  African  trade,  for  the  purpose  of  supply 
ing  foreigners  with  slaves,  and  of  providing  by  proper  regulations  for 
the  humane  treatment,  during  their  passage,  of  slaves  imported  by 
the  said  citizens  into  the  States  admitting  such  importation." 

Strike  out  the  seventh  clause. 

Ordered,  that  the  said  report  of  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  House 
do  lie  on  the  table. 

See  Text  of  both  reports  in  the  House  Journal,  1st  Cong.,  2d  Sess. ; 
the  report  of  the  special  committee  is  also  in  the  Annals  of  Congress, 
1st  Cong.,  II,  1414,  1415,  and  in  Amer.  State  Papers,  Miscellaneous, 
I,  12.  Full  reports  of  discussions  are  in  the  Annals;  condensed  in 
Benton's  Abridgment,  I.  See  also  von  Hoist's  United  States,  I,  89- 
94;  Parton's  Franklin,  II,  606-614;  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the 
Slave  Power,  I,  61-67. 


78 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church.6  In  the  same  manner  the 
opportunities  for  Negroes  to  acquire  education  became  less 
frequent,  as  men  tended  to  veer  around  to  the  exploitation 
conception  of  the  Negro  as  a  being  desirable  only  so  far  as 
he  answered  some  servile  purpose  of  the  white  man.  In 
education,  however,  the  Negroes  were  too  generally  pro 
scribed  and  they  were  eco 
nomically  too  weak  for  in 
dependent  action. 

The  treatment  of  the 
question  of  slavery  in 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana 
subsequently  caused  some 
debate  when  it  was  pro 
vided  that  in  acquiring 
The  the  territory 

Louisiana         of  Louisiana 
from  France 

the  privileges  and  immun 
ities  enjoyed  by  those  cit 
izens  under  the  govern 
ment  of  the  French  would 
be  guaranteed  by  the 
United  States.  This  led 
to  some  future  constitu 
tional  questions,  for  the  reason  that  since  Louisiana  was 
slaveholding  prior  to  the  purchase,  the  institution  was  there 
by  perpetuated  in  that  territory.  On  the  other  hand,  many 
of  the  Negroes  of  that  territory  belonged  to  the  body  of 
citizens  exercising  the  same  rights  as  the  whites.  When, 
a  few  years  thereafter,  Louisiana  followed  in  the  wake 
of  the  other  reactionary  States  of  the  South  and  under 
took  to  restrict  the  privileges  of  the  free  Negroes,  it 
was  contended  that  the  action  of  the  State  conflicted  with 


KICHARD  ALLEN,  the  founder  of  the 
A.  M.  E.  Church 


«  C.  G.  Woodson,  The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  p.  86. 


Reaction  79 

this  treaty  guaranteeing  those  persons  who  were  citizens 
at  the  time  of  the  purchase  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  privi 
leges  which  they  had  under  the  French  regime.  On  the 
occasion  of  the  enforcement  of  a  law  of  that  State  depriv 
ing  certain  free  Negroes  of  the  right  to  attend  school,  this 
question  was  brought  up  in  Mobile,  Alabama,  which  at 
the  time  of  the  purchase  belonged  to  the  Louisiana  terri 
tory.  By  special  ordinance  of  the  city  council,  however, 
these  citizens  were  exempted  from  the  operations  of  this 
law. 

The  great  factors  in  bringing  about  the  reaction,  how 
ever,  were  primarily  economic.  Dur 
ing  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  inventors,  beginning  with 
Watt,  who  built  the  first  steam  en 
gine,  brought  out  such  mechanical 
appliances  as  the  wool-combing  ma 
chine,  the  spinning  jenny,  the  power- 
loom,  and  finally  Whitney's  famous 
cotton  gin.  These  revolutionized  in 
dustries  in  the  modern  world,  and  in  AN  EABLY  COTTON  Gix 
facilitating  the  making  of  cloth  in 
creased  the  demand  for  cotton,  which  led  to  the  plantation 
system  requiring  the  large  increase  in  the  importation  of 
slaves.  The  cotton  gin,  a  machine  of  revolving  cylinders, 
one  for  tearing  the  lint  from  the  seeds  and  another 
arranged  to  remove  the  lint  from  the  first  cylinder,  sim 
plified  the  process  of  seeding  cotton,  and  in  releasing 
labor  for  production  multiplied  its  output  in  a  few 
years.  Cotton  cloth  was  thereby  cheapened  and  the  de 
mand  for  it  so  extensively  increased  that  the  South 
became  a  most  inviting  field  in  which  was  rooted  one 
of  the  greatest  industries  of  the  world.  Before  the  end 
of  the  second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  States 
of  the  lower  South  became  inalterably  attached  to  slavery 


80  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

as  an  economic  advantage  in  supplying  the  cheap  labor  it 
required  and  began  to  denounce  those  who  persisted  in  dub 
bing  it  an  evil. 

With  this  increase  in  the  demand  for  slaves  there  came 
numerous  petitions  for  the  reopening  of  the  African  slave 
trade  in  the  lower  South.  The  Northern  and  Middle  States 
Increase  in  early  prohibited  the  slave  traffic,  holding  it 
the  demand  as  a  grievance  against  George  III  that  they 
were  not  permitted  to  do  so  earlier.  Maryland 
prohibited  it  in  1783.  North  Carolina  checked  it  by  a 
rather  high  import  duty  in  1789,  and  South  Carolina  pro 
scribed  it  by  law  for  sixteen  years.  Georgia  alone  took  no 
action  except  to  provide  for  its  own  security  in  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  insurrectionary  slaves  from  the  West 
Indies,  the  Bahamas  and  Florida,  and  to  require  free 
Negroes  to  furnish  certificates  of  their  industry  and  honesty. 

An  early  effort  was  made  to  repeal  the  prohibitory  pro 
vision  against  the  traffic  in  South  Carolina,  but  it  was  de 
feated.  Those  interested  in  the  trade  proceeded  to  smuggle 
slaves  along  the  coast,  and  the  efforts  to  enforce  the  pro 
hibitory  law  were  without  success.  Finally,  in  1805,  after 
much  persistence,  the  slave-traders  in  that  State  carried 
their  point,  putting  through  the  bill  to  remove  all  African 
restrictions  but  continuing  the  exclusion  of  Negroes  from 
the  West  Indies  and  slaves  from  other  States  failing  to  have 
certificates  of  good  character. 

The  action  of  South  Carolina  was  interpreted  as  opening 
the  door  for  all  of  the  atrocities  formerly  practiced  by  the 
slave  traders.  North  Carolina,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
The  Slave  Maryland  and  Tennessee,  therefore,  requested 
trade  their  Congressmen  to  make  an  effort  to  have 

objectionable.  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  so 

amended  as  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  Negroes  from 
Africa  and  the  West  Indies.  Congress  refused  to  act  in  this 


Reaction  81 

case,  not  only  because  it  had  become  reactionary,  but  for  the 
reason  that  the  time  provided  by  the  Constitution  for  the 
abolition  of  the  slave  trade  would  arrive  in  1808.  At  the 
next  session  of  Congress  bills  to  prohibit  the  trade  were 
introduced,  but  no  action  was  taken. 

In  1806  Jefferson  took  up  the  question  in  his  annual  mes 
sage,  urging  Congress  to  interpose  its  authority  to  withdraw 
citizens  of  the  United  States  from  all  further  participation 
in  those  violations  of  human  rights  which  had  Jefferson  on 
been  "so  long  continued  on  the  unoffending  abolition, 
inhabitants  of  Africa. 7 ' 7  Senator  Bradley  of  Vermont 
promptly  introduced  a  bill  with  the  provisions  that  in 
terstate  slave  trade  along  the  coast  should  be  prohibited 
after  the  close  of  the  year  1807  and  that  importation  of 
slaves  should  be  a  felony  punishable  by  death.8  In  the 
House,  where  proslavery  Congressmen  managed  the  fram 
ing  of  the  bill,  it  prohibited  importation,  provided  fines 
and  forfeiture  of  the  slaves  from  abroad  on  board  such 
vessels,  and  for  the  sale  at  public  auction  of  slaves  thus 
smuggled  in.  As  it  was  evident  that  this  bill  would  not 
prevent  the  enslavement  of  the  blacks  concerned,  Mr.  Sloan 
of  New  Jersey  proposed  to  amend  this  bill  so  as  to  free  the 
slaves  thus  forfeited.  This  proposition  to  turn  loose  in  the 
South  Negroes  just  from  Africa  evoked  from  Early,  of 
Georgia,  the  prophecy  of  the  prompt  extermination  of  such 
Negroes  in  the  Southern  States.  But  speaking  for  his  peo 
ple,  Smilie  of  Pennsylvania  felt  that  he  could  not  tolerate 
the  idea  of  making  the  Federal  Government  a  dealer  in 
slaves.  Such  an  act,  thought  he,  would  be  unconstitutional. 
This  provision  was,  after  some  excitement,  stricken  out. 

An  effort  was  then  made  to  substitute  imprisonment  for 

7  Annals  of  Congress,  1806-1807,  p.  14. 

s  The  debate  on  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  trade  is  treated  in 
W.  E.  B.  DuBois's  Suppression  of  the  African  Slave  Trade. 


82  The  Xegro  In  Our  History 

the  death  penalty,  only  to  cause  much  more  confusion. 
After  more  exciting  discussion  the  House  laid  aside  its  bill 
Efforts  in  for  tlie  one  from  tlie  Senate,  from  which  it 
behalf  of  promptly  eliminated  the  death,  penalty  and 

slave  trade.  provided  a  penalty  of  imprisonment  of  not 
less  than  five  nor  more  than  ten  years.  The  prohibition 
as  to  participation  in  coastal  slave  trade  was  eliminated  also. 
The  bill  was  then  passed  and  sent  back  to  the  Senate.  The 
Senate  accepted  this  with  the  modification  that  the  coastal 
trade  provision  be  applied  only  to  vessels  of  less  than  forty 
tons.  There  was  still  some  opposition  from  Early  of  Geor 
gia  because  he  thought  the  bill  in  that  form  futile  for  the 
prevention  of  smuggling  from  Florida.  John  Randolph  be 
lieved  it  interfered  with  a  man's  right  of  private  property. 
The  bill  as  passed  penalized  with  imprisonment  the  importa 
tion  of  slaves  from  abroad,  prohibited  the  slave  trade 
along  the  coast  in  vessels  of  less  than  forty  tons,  required 
of  larger  vessels  conformity  to  certain  stipulated  regula 
tions,  and  placed  smuggled  slaves  when  seized  at  the  disposal 
of  the  State  where  they  might  be  landed. 

This  law,  of  course,  was  a  victory  for  the  lower  South, 
then  demanding  an  increase  in  the  slave  labor  supply. 
With  these  evasive  provisions  favoring  State  control,  the 
Victory  for  measure  was  never  effective  and  the  illicit 
the  proslavery  trade  flourished  throughout  the  South  with- 
group*  out  much  interference.  In  fact,  it  was  im 

possible  to  secure  a  conviction  under  this  law  until  the  Civil 
War,  so  effective  had  been  public  opinion  in  the  South 
against  the  prohibition  of  the  trade.  This  was  the  culmina 
tion  of  the  reaction  against  the  Negro  in  Congress.  For 
economic  reasons  the  South  had  pitted  itself  against  the 
Constitution  and,  that  Negroes  might  be  further  exploited 
by  the  whites,  finally  secured  a  majority  sufficiently  lacking 
in  moral  courage  to  evade  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  the 
fundamental  law. 


Reaction 


83 


The  untoward  condition  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  re 
sulted,  too,  from  the  unusually  rapid  spread  of  cotton 
culture  and  the  extension  of  slavery  in  the  uplands  of  the 
South,  where  it  had  been  considered  imprac-  Spread  of 
ticable.  The  people  of  the  frontier  section,  cotton  culture, 
who  had  early  constituted  the  opposition  to  the  aristocratic 
pretensions  of  the  slaveholders  near  the  coast,  gradually  be 
came  indoctrinated  in  the  tenets  of  the  slaveholding  aris 
tocracy  and  began  to  develop  the  same  thought  as  to  politics 


ANOTHER  SORT  OF  SLAVERY 

and  religion  as  obtained  near  the  coast.  In  the  seaboard 
States,  the  interior  of  which  lay  among  rugged  hills  or  be 
yond  seemingly  insurmountable  mountains,  the  hopes  of 
democracy  lingered  longer  because  of  the  difficulty  experi 
enced  in  extending  slavery  beyond  these  barriers ;  but  even 
these  parts  had  to  yield  ground  to  the  growing  evil,  despite 


84  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

the  warning  given  by  statesmen  in  the  prolonged  debate  re 
sulting  in  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State.9 

In  the  same  way  the  introduction  of  the  culture  of  sugar 
in  Louisiana  accelerated  the  trade  in  that  territory.  By 
an  additional  act  of  Congress  dealing  with  the  prohibition 
The  sugar  of  the  slave  trade  in  that  State  a  loophole  was 
industry.  jeft  jn  ^he  jaw  so  ^hat  ft  was  construed  to 

permit  the  importation  of  slaves  from  the  other  parts  of 
the  United  States.  Slave  traders  in  some  of  the  border 
States  where  the  worn-out  soil  made  the  system  unprofitable, 
moreover,  supplied  the  Louisiana  Territory  in  spite  of 
restrictions  to  the  contrary.  They  evaded  the  laws  by  pur 
chasing  slaves  ostensibly  for  employment  at  home  but  only 
to  be  sold  later  in  Louisiana  after  a  brief  stay  to  comply 
with  the  letter  of  the  legal  requirements.  The  result  was 
an  influx  of  speculators  buying  sugar  land  and  bringing  in 
slaves,  until  before  the  nineteenth  century  was  far  advanced 
the  increasing  number  of  estates  reported  and  their  large 
production  placed  the  -culture  of  sugar  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  industries  of  the  South. 

In  this  situation,  then,  the  South  soon  reached  the  posi 
tion  that  slavery  is  not  an  evil  and  by  no  means  a  sin,  and 
that  the  only  use  to  be  made  of  a  Negro  is  to  impress  him 
into  the  service  of  the  white  man.  No  care  was  taken  of 
The  situation  the  blacks  as  of  persons  to  be  elevated,  for 
in  the  South.  ^ey  were  to  be  beasts  of  burden.  Negro 
women  were  often  worked  too  hard  to  bear  children,  and  it 
mattered  not  if  they  did  not,  since  it  was  deemed  less  ex 
pensive  to  drive  an  imported  slave  to  death  during  a  few 
years  and  buy  another  in  his  place,  than  to  undertake  to 
increase  his  efficiency  by  methods  of  improvement.  They 
were  herded  in  pens  like  cattle,  sold  to  do  hard  labor  from 
the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  given  quarters  in  habi- 

9  See  the  discourse  of  John  Quincy  Adams  in  the  Appendix. 


Reaction  85 

tations  no  better  than  the  stables  for  animals,  and  fed  upon 
the  coarsest  food  known  to  be  given  to  human  beings.  To 
prevent  their  escape,  police  control  was  effected  by  a  patrol 
system  which  governed  their  going  and  coming  so  as  to 
prevent  them  from  assembling  for  help  or  from  securing 
assistance  or  advice  from  sympathetic  white  friends  and 
free  Negroes. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A   DECLINING   ANTISLAVERY   MOVEMENT 

AGAINST  this  system,  which  held  in  perpetual  servitude 
millions  of  blacks,  and  prevented  the  elevation  of  the  thou 
sands  of  free  persons  of  color  to  the  dignity  of  citizenship, 
persons  of  sympathetic  tendencies  had  for  years  persistently 
Antislavery  protested.1  There  was  some  antislavery  sen- 
groups,  timent  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  intro 
duction  of  slavery  into  the  United  States.  Here  and  there 
in  the  colonies  there  were  persons  who  seriously  objected 
to  the  rigor  to  which  the  slaves  were  subjected  in  the  de 
velopment  of  the  industries  of  the  New  World.  These  first 
protests,  however,  were  largely  on  religious  grounds,  for  the 
reason  that  the  exploiting  methods  gave  the  Negroes  no 
time  for  mental  development  or  religious  experience.  Men 
who  had  at  first  accepted  slavery  as  a  means  of  bringing 
these  heathen  into  a  Christian  land  where  they  might  un 
dergo  conversion  to  the  faith,  bore  it  grievously  that  selfish 
masters  ignored  the  right  of  the  Negroes  to  be  enlightened. 

Protests  appeared  more  frequently  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  religious  freedom  and  liberty  developed  to 
the  extent  that  the  blacks  were  given  some  consideration. 
This  antislavery  sentiment,  however,  was  not  due  pri- 
Effect  on  niarily  to  cruel  treatment  of  the  slaves.  In 
the  Negro's  fact,  the  first  Negro  slaves  were  largely  house 
servants,  enjoying  the  treatment  usually  re- 

1  The  early  antislavery  movement  has  been  well  treated  in  M.  S. 
Locke's  Antislavery  in  America  from  the  Introduction  of  the  African 
Slaves  to  the  Prohibition  of  the  Slave  Trade,  in  Alice  D.  Adams's 
Xeglected  Period  of  Antislavery  in  America,  and  in  the  annual 
reports  of  The  American  Convention  of  Abolition  Societies. 

86 


A  Declining  Antislavery  Movement         87 

ceived  among  the  ancient  patriarchs.  Some  of  them  were 
servants  indentured  for  a  certain  period,  and  even  the 
slaves  during  the  eighteenth  century  had  many  opportuni 
ties  for  obtaining  freedom.  The  free  Negroes  had  a  social 
status  of  equality  with  that  of  the  poor  whites. 

A  bold  attack  on  slavery,  therefore,  did  not  follow,  as 
most  of  the  objections  raised  during  the  eighteenth  century 
were  economic  rather  than  sentimental,  considering  slavery 
prejudicial  not  only  to  the  interests  of  the  Mild  attack 
slaves  themselves  but  to  those  of  a  country  on  slavery, 
desirous  of  economic  betterment.  As  already  observed, 
however,  the  struggle  for  the  rights  of  man  was  productive 
of  such  a  healthy  sentiment  in  behalf  of  universal  liberty 
that  almost  all  of  the  fathers  of  ,the  American  Revolution 
favored  a  gradual  extermination  of  the  institution  of  slavery 
on  the  grounds  that  the  Negroes  had  a  natural  right  to  be 
free.  Antislavery  societies  were  organized  in  the  North 
and  South  immediately  after  the  Revolution  to  secure  to  the 
slaves  the  fruits  of  the  victory  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of 
man.  To  unify  the  efforts  of  these  organiza-  Abolition 
tions  a  national  body,  the  American  Conven-  societies, 
tion  of  Abolition  Societies,  was  formed  to  meet  annually. 
A  study  of  the  records  of  these  societies  shows  that  the 
membership  consisted  largely  of  Quakers  and  such  other 
enlightened  persons  of  the  more  liberal  connections  as  were 
disposed  to  attack  the  institution.  These  organizations 
were  intended  to  mold  public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  en 
slaved  Africans  with  a  view  to  exterminating  slavery. 

They  did  not  contemplate  instant  abolition.  The  ma 
chinery  for  promoting  the  uplift  of  the  Negroes,  as  further 
stated  by  them,  had  to  do  with  methods  of  gradual  eman 
cipation.  According  to  their  scheme,  they  Gradual 
raised  funds  to  purchase  slaves,  encouraged  emancipation, 
their  emancipation,  and  provided  for  prospective  freedmen 
opportunities  for  mental  development  and  religious  instruc- 


88  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

tion  that  they  might  properly  function  in  society  on  becom 
ing  citizens.  These  bodies  maintained,  moreover,  a  sort  of 
vocational  guidance  committee  in  each  locality  to  look  out 
for  apprenticing  Negroes  to  trades  and  to  find  employment 
for  them  in  the  various  fields  when  they  had  developed  into 
efficient  mechanics. 

The  strongest  influence  against  slavery  which  had  hither 
to  developed,  as  already  observed,  came  from  the  Quakers. 
After  ridding  themselves  of  slavery,  they  were,  during  the 
first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  working  strenuously 
to  abolish  the  institution  in  other  parts.  They  had,  how- 
Antislavery  "  ever,  used  passive  means  in  reaching  their 
Quakers.  ends,  and  for  that  reason  had  not  gained  very 

much  ground ;  but  they  had  done  effective  work  in  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina,  and  when  they  could  not  operate  there 
as  they  desired  they  sent  their  slaves  and  others  to  the 
Northwest  Territory  where  they  had  a  new  opportunity.  It 
is  doubtless  due  to  their  influence  in  North  Carolina  that  a 
distinguished  man  like  Judge  William  Gaston  could  call 
on  the  State  to  extirpate  slavery.  They,  no  doubt,  had 
much  to  do  with  the  fact  that  an  appeal  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  North  Carolina  General  Assembly  failed  only  by  the 
casting  vote  of  the  speaker,  and  that  the  institution  was 
strongly  attacked  in  the  Virginia  Convention  in  1829-30, 
and  in  the  legislature  the  following  year.2 

The  inevitable  effect  of  the  reaction  was  sectionalism. 
As  a  more  militant  antislavery  movement  developed  from 
the  industrial  revolution,  which  led  to  the  extension  of 
The  results  *he  plantation  system,  requiring  more  slaves, 
of  the  the  South  became  gradually  estranged  from 

the  North.  The  open  violations  of  the  act 

2C.  G.  Woodson,  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861;  S.  B. 
Weeks,  Southern  Quakers  and  Slavery,  and  R.  R.  Wright,  Negro 
Rural  Communities  in  The  Southern  Workman,  Vol.  XXXVII,  pp. 
158-166. 


A  Declining  Antislavery  Movement         89 

prohibiting  the  African  slave  trade  and  the  impetus  given 
the  domestic  traffic  to  supply  these  plantations  with  Ne 
groes,  led  to  the  bold  attack  on  the  institution  during  the 
first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  cotton  gin,  al 
though  invented  as  early  as  1793,  had  just  then  begun  to  do 
its  work.  During  the  first  antislavery  period  there  were  no 
violent  protests,  as  the  workers  concerned  contented  them 
selves  with  making  an  occasional  speech  or  writing  for  a 
newspaper  an  article  inveighing  against  the  institution  and 
setting  forth  plans  for  exterminating  the  evil.  A  consider 
able  portion  of  the  abolition  literature  which  influenced 
public  opinion  appeared  in  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emanci 
pation,  published  by  Benjamin  Lundy.  Through  this  organ 
the  sentiments  of  a  large  number  of  antislavery  people  liv 
ing  in  the  Appalachian  highland  found  expression.  They 
were  descendants  of  the  Germans  and  Scotch-Irish  immi 
grants  who  came  to  this  country  to  realize  their  ideals  of  re 
ligion  and  government,  differing  widely  from  those  of  the 
aristocratic  planters  who  maintained  a  slavocracy  near  the 
coast.  A  few  of  these  settlers  of  the  uplands  were  gradually 
indoctrinated  in  the  tenets  of  slavery  in  the  proportion  that 
the  institution  extended  towards  the  mountains,  but  a 
large  number  of  them  continued  even  until  the  Civil  War  to 
work  for  the  destruction  of  the  institution.  Out  of  this 
group  developed  a  number  of  manumission  societies  in 
North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Kentucky.  These  organiza 
tions  manifested  the  first  radicalism  the  country  had  up  to 
that  time  experienced. 

Here  we  see  the  tendency  not  only  to  regard  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  as  an  economic  evil  but  to  consider  it  as  a 
sin  of  which  the  Christian  people  should  be  ashamed.  In 
1810  Louis  Duprey  informed  professing  Slavery  an 
Christians  that  the  great  transgressions  of  economic  evil, 
slave  commonwealths  would  lead  to  overwhelming  judg 
ments  of  God.  Thinking  of  the  evil  of  slavery,  Thomas 


90 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Jefferson,  an  uplander,  said :  "I  tremble  for  my  country 
when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just."  David  Barrow,  of  Ken 
tucky,  denounced  in  a  pamphlet  the  inconsistency  in  the 
use  of  religious  formulas  in  connection  with  the  bequests 
of  slaves,  and  advocated  immediate  emancipation.  About 
the  same  time,  John  D.  Paxton,  a  preacher  in  Kentucky 
and  Virginia,  believed  in  the  "moral  evil  of  slavery  and  the 
duty  of  Christians  to  aid  slaves  and  free  them."  Daniel 

Raymond  of  Maryland 
branded  slavery  as  a 
"foul  stain  on  our  na 
tional  escutcheon,  a  can 
ker  which  is  corroding 
the  moral  and  political 
vitals  of  our  country." 
Declaring  slave  traffic  a 
curse  to  the  master,  John 
Randolph,  of  Virginia, 
said  in  Congress  in  1816, 
"Do  as  you  would  be 
done  by.  Every  man 
who  leaves  that  great  high 
road  will  have  the  chalice 
which  he  himself  has 
poisoned — the  chalice  of 
justice,  even-handed  jus 
tice — put  to  his  own  lips 
by  the  God  of  nature,  who  does  not  require  abolition  so 
cieties  to  carry  his  purpose  into  execution." 

The  spirit  of  antislavery,  however,  was  declining  in  the 
South  throughout  the  first  half  century  of  the  republic. 
Antislavery  Free  discussion  of  slavery  was  extended  by 
cause  in  the  ardent  debate  over  the  Missouri  question 

the  South.         from  1819  t()  1821      In  thig  contest  the  pro- 
slavery  and  antislavery  forces  for  the  first  time  nationally 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  an  antislavery 
reformer 


A  Declining  Antislavery  Movement         91 

clashed.  The  question  then  was  whether  or  not  slave 
territory  should  be  extended.  By  that  time  it  was  evident 
that  the  South  was  preparing  to  support  the  institution, 
whereas  the  North,  in  defense  of  free  labor,  had  uncon 
sciously  become  radically  opposed  to  the  extension  of 
slavery.  In  so  expressing  itself  in  reply  to  the  defense  of 
the  institution,  the  whole  country  became  alarmed  and  the 
thinking  public  was  impressed  thereby  with  the  idea  that 
the  country  was  then  face  to  face  with  a  problem  requiring 
serious  consideration.  The  United  States  had  by  this  time 
developed  a  feeling  of  nationalism. 

These  protests,  however,  were  scattered  and  they  had 
little  effect,  for  the  abolition  movement  gradually  became 
a  sectional  one.  The  antislavery  societies  which  held  wide 
sway  until  about  the  beginning'  of  the  nine-  The  decline  of 
teenth  century  lost  ground  from  year  to  year,  the  antislav- 
The  lower  South  early  exterminated  them,  erymovem*nt. 
and,  in  the  border  States,  where  they  had  had  extensive  in 
fluence,  they  soon  claimed  only  a  few  adherents.  In  1827 
there  was  one  such  society  in  Connecticut,  none  in  Delaware, 
two  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  twelve  in  Illinois,  eight  in 
Kentucky,  eleven  in  Maryland,  two  in  Massachusetts,  one 
in  New  York,  fifty  in  North  Carolina,  four  in  Ohio,  sixteen 
in  Pennsylvania,  one  in  Khode  Island,  twenty-five  in  Ten 
nessee,  eight  in  Virginia.  Less  than  a  decade  later  almost 
all  southern  States  in  which  most  of  these  societies  had 
developed  ceased  to  support  them,  and  the  American  Con 
vention  became  largely  a  northern  organization,  and  de 
cidedly  so,  when  it  fell  under  the  influence  of  the  radicals. 

As  a  sequel  and  a  cause  of  the  reaction  came  the  bold  at 
tempts  of  the  Negroes  at  insurrection.3  Unwilling  to  un 
dergo  the  persecutions  entailed  by  this  change  of  slavery 
from  a  patriarchial  to  an  economic  system,  a  number  of 

3  For  additional  information  as  to  the  rising  of  slaves  see  Joshua 
Coffin's  Slave  Insurrections, 


92 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Negroes  endeavored  to  secure  relief  by  refreshing  the  tree 
of  liberty  with  the  blood  of  their  oppressors.  The  chief 
Slave  source  of  these  uprisings  came  from  refugees 

insurrections,  brought  to  this  country  from  Santo  Domingo 
in  1793  and  from  certain  free  Negroes  encouraged  to  extend 

a  helping  hand  to 
their  enslaved  breth 
ren.  The  first  ef 
fort  of  consequence 
was  Gabriel's  Insur 
rection  in  Virginia 
in  the  year  1800.  It 
had  been  so  deliber 
ately  planned  that 
it  was  thought  that 
white  men  were  con 
cerned  with  it,  but 
an  investigation,  ac 
cording  to  James 
Monroe,  showed  that 
there  was  no  ground 
for  such  a  con 
clusion.  It  was 
brought  out,  how 
ever,  that  these  Ne 
groes,  through  channels  of  information,  had  taken  over 
the  revolutionary  ideas  of  France  and  were  beginning  to 
use  force  to  secure  to  themselves  those  privileges  prized 
by  the  people  in  that  country. 

The  insurrectionary  movement  was  impeded  but  could 
not  be  easily  stopped.  At  Camden  in  1816,  and  some  years 
later  at  Tarboro,  Newberne  and  Hillsboro,  North  Caro 
lina,  there  developed  other  such  plots  of  less  conse- 
At  Camden.  quence.  For  some  years  these  outbreaks  were 
frequent  around  Baltimore,  Norfolk,  Petersburg  and  New 


THE  NEGRO  CALLS  A  HALT 


A  Declining  Ant isla very  Movement         93 

Orleans.  In  1822,  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  however, 
was  the  scene  of  a  better  planned  effort  to  effect  the  lib 
eration  of  the  slaves  by  organizing  them  to  assassinate 
their  masters.  The  leading  spirit  was  one  Denmark 
Denmark  Vesey,  an  educated  Negro  of  Santo  Vesey. 
Domingo,  from  which  he  had  brought  his  new  ideas  as  to 
freedom.  It  was  observed  that  these  Negroes  in  Charleston 
had  been  reading  the  slavery  debate  of  the  Missouri  Com 
promise  and  were  emboldened  by  the  attacks  on  the  institu 
tion  to  effect  its  extermination.  In  all  of  these  cases  the 
plans  of  the  Negroes  were  detected  in  time  to  foil  them,  and 
the  conspirators  were  promptly  executed  in  such  a  bar 
barous  way  as  to  serve  as  a  striking  example  of  the  fate 
awaiting  those  who,  refused  to  be  deterred  from  such  efforts. 

An  extensive  scheme  for  an  insurrection,  however,  came 
in  1828  from  David  Walker  of  Massachusetts,  who,  in  a 
systematic  address  to  the  slaves  throughout  the  country, 
appealed  to  them  to  rise  against  their  masters.     Walker 
said:     "For  although  the  destruction  of  the        r>avid 
oppressors   God   may   not   effect   by   the   op-       Walker's 
pressed,  yet  the  Lord  our  God  will  bring  other 
destruction  upon  them,  for  not  unfrequently  will  he  cause 
them  to  rise  up  one  against  the  other,  to  be  split,  divided, 
and  to  oppress  each  other,  and  sometimes  to  open  hostilities 
with  sword  in  hand. ' '  4 

But  the  most  exciting  of  all  of  these  disturbances  did  not 
come  until  1831,  when  Nat  Turner,  a  Negro  insurgent  of 
Southampton  County,  Virginia,  feeling  that  he  was  or 
dained  of  God  to  liberate  his  people,  organized  Nat  Turner's 
a  number  of  daring  blacks  and  proceeded  **suicie 
from  plantation  to  plantation  murdering  their  masters. 
Having  obtained  great  influence  over  the  minds  of  his  fol 
lowers,  he  was  in  a  position  to  interest  a  much  larger 

*  David  Walker's  Appeal,  p.  5. 


94 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


number  of  them  than  other  Negroes  who  had  undertaken 
to  incite  their  fellows  to  self-assertion.  With  the  aid  of  six 
desperate  companions,  who  finally  increased  tenfold,  he 
killed  sixty  whites.  After  a  few  days  of  slaughter  and  local 
warfare,  Turner  and  his  followers  were  finally  driven  into 
the  swamps  by  the  State  militia  and  United  States  troops. 
On  the  first  day  over  a  hundred  Negroes  were  killed.  After 

a  few  days  of  resistance 
they  were  overpowered  and 
imprisoned.  Twelve  Ne 
groes  were  promptly  con 
victed  and  expatriated,  but 
Nat  Turner  and  twenty 
of  his  accomplices  were 
hanged.  An  effort  was 
made  to  connect  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  and  David 
Walker  with  this  rising, 
but  no  evidence  to  this  ef 
fect  could  be  found.  Gar 
rison  disclaimed  any  con 
nection  with  the  insurrec 
tion.  The  thought  then 
that  slaves  themselves 
could  cause  such  a  disturb 
ance  struck  terror  to  the  very  heart  of  the  South,  which 
thereafter  lived  in  eternal  dread  of  servile  insurrection. 

This  was  sufficient  to  convince  the  South  that  if  economic 
slavery  was  to  be  successful,  the  one  thing  needful  was 
to  close  up  the  avenues  of  information  to  the  Negroes.  The 
Stringent  ^rst  eff°rt  in  this  direction  was  to  extend  the 
measures  in  slave  code  so  as  to  penalize  a  number  of  deeds 
which  theretofore  had  not  been  punishable 
by  law.  The  Southern  States  enacted  more  stringent 
measures  to  regulate  traveling  and  the  assembling  of  slaves, 


NAT  TURNER 


A  Declining  Antislaveiy  Movement         95 

to  make  them  ineffective  in  assembling  for  insurrection  pur 
poses  or  for  information  from  contact  with  other  persons 
or  from  schools.  These  stringent  measures  applying  to 
traveling  and  assembly  were  not  restricted  to  slaves  but 
made  applicable  also  to  the  free  Negroes  and  mulattoes. 
The  wording  of  these  laws  differed  to  a  certain  extent,  but 
they  usually  provided  that  it  would  be  unlawful  for  Negroes 
or  slaves  above  a  certain  number,  usually  five,  to  assemble 
without  the  permission  of  their  masters,  even  for  wor 
ship,  unless  the  services  were  conducted  by  a  recognized 
white  minister  or  observed  by  ''certain  discreet  and  repu 
table  persons."  Some  States  prohibited  the  immigration 
of  free  persons  of  color,  and  because  of  the  circulation  of 
bills,  literature,  and  such  inflammatory  pamphlets  as  that  of 
David  Walker,  there  were  enacted  several  laws  to  the 
effect  that  whosoever  should  write,  print,  publish  or  dis 
tribute  such  literature  so  as  to  spread  discontent  among 
the  slaves  would  be  imprisoned  for  life  or  put  to  death. 
It  was  still  further  provided  that  all  persons  who  should 
teach  or  cause  to  be  taught  any  slave  to  read  or  write 
should  suffer  the  same  penalty. 

In  many  of  the  Southern  States,  however,  the  effort  was 
made  not  only  to  regulate  the  traveling  and  assembling 
of  the  free  Negroes  but  to  get  rid  of  them  entirely  by  giving 
them  so  many  days  to  leave  the  State.5  The  Free  Negroes 
Missouri  General  Assembly  enacted  in  1819  a  driven  out. 
law  providing  that  there  should  be  no  more  assemblages  of 
slaves  or  free  Negroes  or  mulattoes,  mixing  or  associating 
with  such  slaves  for  teaching  them  to  read,  and  when  that 
State  framed  its  constitution  on  being  admitted  into  the 
Union  it  incorporated  into  that  document  a  provision  to 
prevent  the  immigration  of  free  Negroes  into  that  State. 
Louisiana  prohibited  the  immigration  of  free  persons  of 

s  See  C.  G.  Woodson's  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  p.  40;  and 
The  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  pp.  151-178. 


96 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


color  in  1814,  and  in  1830  excluded  such  persons  from  the 
State,  giving  them  a  definite  period  to  leave. 

In  1831  Mississippi  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  her 
sister  State.  In  cases  where  free  Negroes  were  not  driven 
out,  as  in  South  Carolina,  certain  stringent  measures  to 
safeguard  the  interests  of  the  slaveholders  materially  in 
terfered  with  the  economic 
welfare  of  these  persons 
of  color.  In  1834,  when 
South  Carolina  provided 
that  there  should  be  no 
teaching  of  Negroes  by 
white  or  colored  friends 
and  that  their  schools 
should  be  disestablished,  it 
provided  also  that  persons 
of  African  blood  should  not 
be  employed  as  clerks  or 
salesmen  in  or  about  any 
store  or  house  used  for 
trading.  This  legislation 
did  not  disgrace  the  statute 
books  of  the  border  States 
of  Kentucky,  Maryland 
and  Tennessee,  but  public 
opinion  there  sometimes  had  the  same  effect. 

Against  this  system  of  repression,  however,  a  few  promi 
nent  men  of  the  South  continued  to  protest.  Chancellor 
Harper  of  South  Carolina  felt  that  it  was  shameful  to 
Protests  of  prevent  the  blacks  from  obtaining  sufficient 
sympathetic  knowledge  to  read  the  Bible.  Daniel  R.  Good- 
!rs'  loe,  of  North  Carolina,  was  of  the  same  opin 
ion.  Southerners  of  the  most  radical  type,  moreover,  did  not 
like  to  live  under  the  stigma  with  which  they  were  branded 
by  William  Jay,  who  charged  them  with  having  closed  up 


THE  MOTHER  AND  CHILD 


A  Declining  Antislavery  Movement         97 

the  Bible  in  denying  the  Negroes  the  revelation  of  God, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  styled  themselves  Christians. 
Some  opposition  was,  therefore,  shown,  and  in  certain  parts 
it  was  found  impossible  to  execute  restrictive  measures  be 
cause  of  the  healthy  public  opinion  against  them.  The  chil 
dren  of  the  sympathetic  aristocratic  slaveholders,  and  espe 
cially  the  wives  and  children  of  ministers,  hardly  ceased  to 
teach  Negroes  to  read  as  much  as  the  Bible.  Under  the  di 
rection  of  Bishop  Capers  of  South  Carolina,  Reverend  Josiah 
Law  and  Reverend  C.  C.  Jones  of  Georgia,  and  Bishop  Polk 
of  Louisiana,  much  was  accomplished  by  a  new  system  of 
training  called  religious  instruction.  Under  this  system 
the  Negroes  were  not  allowed  to  read  and  write  but  were 
taught  to  commit  to  memory  in  catechetical  form  the 
principles  of  religion  and  instructive  parts  of  the  Bible.6 
This  reaction,  however,  was  not  peculiar  to  the  slave 
States.7  In  the  proportion  that  free  Negroes,  finding  it  im 
possible  to  live  in  the  South,  sought  refuge  in  the  North, 
race  prejudice  and  friction  increased.  These  Reaction  in 
culminated  in  race  riots,  easily  developed  in  tlie  North- 
that  section  at  the  time  the  country  was  receiving  a  number 
of  Irish  and  German  immigrants  who  competed  directly 
with  the  Negroes  as  laborers.  Negroes  were  not  permitted 
to  enter  the  academy  thrown  open  to  them  at  Canaan,  New 
Hampshire,  in  1834 ;  the  people  of  New  Haven  at  a  public 
meeting  of  their  leading  citizens  strenuously  protested 
against  establishing  there  a  manual  labor  school  for  the 
education  of  Negroes;  and  the  citizens  of  Canterbury 
actually  imprisoned  Prudence  Crandall  by  securing  special 
legislation  to  that  effect  because  she  persisted  in  admitting 
Negro  girls  to  her  seminary,  which  in  becoming  attractive 

s  See  also  C.  G.  Woodson's  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  pp. 
39-60. 

7  This  is  extensively  treated  in  C.  C.  Jones's  Religious  Instruction 
of  Negroes  and  in  C.  G.  Woodson's  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to 
1861,  Ch.  VIII. 


98  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

to  that  race  might  increase  the  colored  population  of  that 
city  to  the  displeasure  of  its,  white  citizens. 

Riots  of  a  graver  sort  were  frequent  throughout  the 
North  during  these  years.  The  first  sanguinary  conflicts 
of  consequence  took  place  in  Ohio.  In  1826  a  mob  under- 
Race  riots  in  took  to  drive  the  Negroes  out  of  Cincinnati, 
the  North.  in  133 6  another  mob  not  only  attacked  Ne 
groes  but  broke  up  also  the  abolition  press,  which  was  sup 
posed  to  encourage  the  influx  of  persons  of  that  class. 
In  1841  there  was  in  the  same  city  a  local  race  war  which  for 
a  week  disturbed  that  metropolis  to  the  extent  of  resulting 
in  the  death  of  a  number  of  persons  and  the  expulsion  of 
many  Negroes  from  the  city.  On  a  " Black  Friday,"  Janu 
ary  1,  1830,  eighty  of  the  two  hundred  Negroes  living  in 
Portsmouth,  Ohio,  were  driven  out  of  the  city  as  undesir 
ables.  A  mob  of  Germans  drove  John  Randolph's  Negroes 
from  their  own  land  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio,  where  he  had 
provided  for  their  settlement  and  freedom. 

The  East  offered  no  exception  to  this  rule.  The  citizens 
of  Philadelphia  began  to  burn  Negro  homes  in  1820,  sought 
to  expel  the  blacks  from  the  city  and  State  in  1830  and 
Riots  in  actually  mobbed  them  in  1834,  destroying 

the  East.  their  churches  and  other  property.  In  1838 

another  conflict  developed  into  a  riot  which  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  Pennsylvania  Hall  and  the  Colored  Orphan 
Asylum  in  that  city.  When  the  Negroes  in  1842  undertook 
to  celebrate  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  an 
other  occasion  was  afforded  for  race  conflict,  which  meant  a 
loss  of  life  and  property  to  the  Negroes.  Pittsburg,  fol 
lowing  the  example  of  Philadelphia,  had  such  a  riot  in  1839. 
In  1834,  this  rule  of  the  mob  in  New  York  City  and  Pal 
myra  led  to  riots  during  which  the  Negroes  were  attacked 
along-  the  streets  and  driven  from  their  homes. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ECONOMIC  SLAVERY 

THE  plantation  system  resulting  from  the  industrial  rev 
olution,  the  cause  of  the  radical  reaction,  made  slaveholding 
a  business  of  apparently  tremendous  possibilities.  Large 
sums  were  invested  in  the  enterprise,  and  the  The  rise  of 
South  entered  upon  its  career  as  a  borrowing  the  plantation, 
section.  There  was  a  rush  of  southern  white  men  from  the 
older  States  along  the  coast  to  the  fertile  cotton  lands  of 
the  Gulf  district  as  soon  as  they  were  opened  for  settlement. 
Many  came  almost  empty  handed,  but  the  majority  of  those 
taking  up  large  tracts  of  land  brought  their  slaves  with 
them.  The  number  of  slaves  increased  forty  or  fifty  per 
cent  between  1810  and  1820,  and  they  came  thereafter  in 
droves.1 

On  their  way  to  the  Southwest  the  slaves  experienced  the 
usual  hardships  of  a  long  drive.     The   inhuman  traders 
placed  the  children   in   wagons  and  forced  the  men   and 
women  to  walk  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  miles   The  internal 
a  day.    Often  traders  encountered  on  the  way  slave  trade- 
bought  some  of  the  slaves  in  transit,  after  subjecting  them 
to   such   an   examination   of  their  teeth   and   other   parts 
as  to  determine   their  age   and  health.     Featherstonaugh 
mentions  his  meeting  in  southwestern  Virginia  a  camp  of 

i  A.  B.  Hart,  Slavery  and  Abolition,  Chs.  IV,  V,  VI,  and  VII;  U.  B. 
Phillips,  American  Negro  Slavery,  pp.  151-401;  W.  E.  B.  DuBois, 
The  Negro,  Ch.  IX;  M.  B.  Hammond,  The  Cotton  Industry;  Debow's 
Review;  Williams  Wells  Brown,  The  Rising  Son,  265-318;  G.  W. 
Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  America,  Vol.  I,  pp.  115-324; 
and  J.  B.  McMaster's  History  of  the  United  States,  VII,  pp.  238-370. 

99 


100  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Negro  slave  drivers  just  packing  up  to  start.  He  said: 
' '  They  had  with  them  about  three  hundred  slaves  who  had 
bivouacked  the  preceding  night  in  chains  in  the  woods. 
These  they  were  conducting  to  Natchez,  on  the  Mississippi 
River,  to  work  upon  the  sugar  plantations  in  Louisiana. 
It  resembled  one  of  the  comes  spoken  of  by  Mingo  Park, 
except  that  they  had  a  caravan  of  nine  wagons  and  single- 
horse  carriages  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  the  white 
people  and  any  of  the  blacks  that  should  fall  lame.  The 
female  slaves,  some  of  them  sitting  on  logs  of  wood  while 
others  were  standing,  and  a  great  many  little  black  children, 
were  warming  themselves  at  the  fire  of  the  bivouac.  In 
front  of  them  all,  and  prepared  for  the  march,  stood  in 
double  files  about  two  hundred  men  slaves,  manacled  and 
chained  to  each  other." 

Referring  to  one  of  these  parties,  Basil  Hall  said :  ' l  In 
the  rear  of  all  came  a  light-covered  vehicle  with  the  master 
and  mistress  of  the  party.  Along  the  roadside  scattered  at 
A  drove  intervals  we  observed  the  male  slaves  trudging 

of  slaves.  'm  front.     At  the  top  of  all,  against  the  sky 

line,  two  men  walked  together  apparently  hand  in  hand, 
pacing  along  very  sociably.  There  was  something,  however, 
in  their  attitude  which  seemed  unusual  and  constrained. 
When  we  came  nearer  accordingly,  we  discovered  that  this 
couple  were  bolted  together  by  a  short  chain  riveted  to 
broad  iron  clasps  secured  in  like  manner  round  the  wrists. ' ' 3 

Josiah  Henson,  a  Negro  brought  into  this  traffic,  said: 
"Men  trudged  on  foot,  the  children  were  put  into  the 
wagon,  and  now  and  then  my  wife  rode  for  a  while.  We 
Josiah  went  through  Alexandria,  Culpepper,  Fau- 

Henson.  quier,  Harper's  Ferry,  Cumberland,  and  over 

the  mountains  to  the  Natural  Turnpike  to  Wheeling.     In 

2  G.  W.  Featherstonaugh,  Excursion  through  the  Slave  States,  Ch.  I, 
p.  120. 

s  Basil  Hall,  Travels  in  Vorth  America,  Ch.  ITT,  pp.  128-129. 


Economic  Slavery 


101 


all  the  taverns  along  the  road  were  regular  places  for  the 
droves  of  Negroes  continually  passing  along  under  the 
system  of  internal  slave  trade.  At  the  places  where  we 
stopped  for  the  night,  we  often  met  Negro  drivers  with 
their  droves,  who  were  almost  uniformly  kept  chained  to 
prevent  them  from  running  away.  I  was  often  invited  to 
pass  the  evening  with  them  in  the  bar-room — their  Negroes, 

in  the  meantime,  lying 
chained  in  the  pen,  while 
mine  were  scattered  around 
at  liberty."4 

Edwin  L.  Godkiii  said : 
"The  hardships  these  Ne 
groes  go  through  who  are 
attached  to  one  of  these  mi 
grant  parties  baffles  de 
scription.  They  trudge  on 
foot  all  day 
through  mud 
and  thicket  without  rest  or 
respite.  Thousands  of  miles 
are  traversed  by  these 
weary  wayfarers  without 
their  knowing  or  caring 
why,  urged  on  by  whip  and 
in  full  assurance  that  no  change  of  place  can  bring  any 
change  to  them.  Hard  work,  coarse  food,  merciless  flog 
ging,  are  all  that  await  them,  and  all  that  they  can  look 
to.  I  have  never  passed  them  staggering  along  in  the 
rear  of  the  wagons  at  the  close  of  a  long  day's  march,  the 
weakest  furthest  in  the  rear,  the  strongest  already  utterly 
spent,  without  wondering  how  Christendom,  which  eight 
centuries  ago  rose  in  arms  for  a  sentiment,  can  look  so 


Hardships. 


JOSIAH  HEN  SON,  prototype  of 
Uncle  Tom's  Cabin 


*  Josiah  Henson,  Uncle  Tom's  Story  of  His  Life,  p.  53. 


102  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

calmly  on  at  so  foul  and  monstrous  a  wrong  as  this  Ameri 
can  slavery. ' ' 5 

This  migration,  of  course,  had  a  disastrous  effect  on  the 
seaboard  States  from  which  so  many  masters  and  their 
slaves  were  drawn.  Industry  was  paralyzed  on  the  lower 
Atlantic  coast.  There  were  the  worn-out  lands  with  de- 
The  decline  of  serted  homes  once  characterized  by  abundance 
the  seaboard  and  luxury,  ruined  and  distressed  debtors 
wondering  how  to  find  relief,  humiliated  plant 
ers  with  no  way  of  escape  but  migration.  Efforts  at  fer 
tilization  to  rebuild  the  waste  places  were  tried,  and  with 
this  the  slave  States  near  the  Atlantic  experienced  a  sort 
of  revival  about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
This  was  due  also,  some  think,  to  the  demand  for  slaves 
as  laborers  on  the  railroads  which  were  then  being  con 
structed  to  unite  the  South  and  to  connect  it  with  the  West. 

To  supply  the  Southwest  with  slaves,  however,  the  do 
mestic  slave  trade  became  an  important  business,  and  the 
older  States  which  suffered  from  the  migration  devoted 
Slave  themselves  to  slave  breeding  for  this  market, 

breeding.  jn  ^he  work  entitled  Slavery  and  the  Internal 

Slave  Trade  in  the  South,  it  is  estimated  that  seven  of 
the  older  States  annually  exported  80,000  to  the  South. 
These  were  Virginia,  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky, 
Tennessee,  Missouri  and  Delaware.  Professor  Asa  Martin 
thinks  that  Kentucky  furnished  5,000  a  year.  This  flour 
ished  the  more  because  of  the  restrictions  on  the  African 
slave  trade.  One  writer  estimates  the  number  of  slaves 
exported  from  Virginia  at  120,000.  It  is  difficult  to  figure 
out  numbers,  however,  for  the  documents  bearing  on  the 
sale  of  slaves  did  not  always  determine  exactly  what  their 
destination  would  be.  Men  sometimes  bought  them  appar 
ently  for  private  use,  concealing  their  ultimate  aim  to  sell 

B  The  North  American  Review,  Vol.  CLXXXX,  pp.  46,  47. 


Economic  Slavery 


103 


them  South.  Except  when  forced  by  economic  necessity 
or  in  the  case  of  insubordination,  some  masters  refused  to 
sell  their  slaves  if  they  knew  that  they  would  have  to  un 
dergo  the  tortures  of  servitude  in  the  cotton  and  sugar 
districts.  It  is  also  difficult  to  determine  who  were  the 
interstate  slave  traders.  Almost  all  commission  merchants 
dealt  in  slaves  as  in  any  other  property,  and  they  were  not 
anxious  to  be  known  as  being  primarily  interested  in  a 


T 


A  SLAVE  AUCTION 

work  which  was  in  no  sense  popular  among  the  more  nearly 
civilized  slaveholders. 

Some  of  these  masters,  in  advertising  slaves  for  sale, 
specifically  stated  that  they  were  not  to  be  sold  out  of  the 
State,  and  persons  who  were  bold  enough  to  proclaim  them 
selves  as  such  traders  were  mentioned  with  Slaves 
opprobrium  in  the  older  slave  States.6  The  sold  south, 
presence  of  such  traders  in  Winchester,  Virginia,  in  1818, 


6  I.  E.  McDougle,  Slavery  in  Kentucky  in  The  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  Vol.  II,  pp.  226-230. 


104  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

evoked  the  comment :  *  *  Several  wretches,  whose  hearts 
must  be  as  black  as  the  skins  of  the  unfortunate  beings  who 
constitute  their  inhuman  traffic,  have  for  several  days  been 
impudently  prowling  about  the  streets  of  this  place  with 
labels  on  their  hats  exhibiting  in  conspicuous  characters 
the  words,  *  Cash  for  Negroes. '  '  Some  time  in  the  thirties 
of  the  last  century  a  master  of  Danville,  Kentucky,  sold 
a  Negro  woman  to  a  regular  slave  trader.  Upon  learning 
this,  threats  of  a  mob  to  do  him  violence  compelled  this 
master  to  go  in  quest  of  the  trader,  from  whom  he  re 
purchased  the  woman  at  a  decidedly  increased  price.7  Yet, 
intense  as  this  feeling  was,  Delaware  was  the  only  slave 
State  to  legislate  against  the  interstate  slave  trade.  Mary 
land,  Kentucky  and  Louisiana  undertook  somewhat  to 
regulate  it. 

This  enlightened  minority  could  not  stop  this  traffic,  and 
it  became  for  a  number  of  centers  in  the  border  States  a 
source  of  much  revenue.  Dealers  bought  up  slaves  in  the 
A  source  of  local  markets  and  confined  them  in  jails, 
revenue.  taverns,  warehouses  or  slave  pens,  while  await 

ing  buyers  from  the  Southwest.  The  average  slave  pen 
had  an  administration  building  for  the  slaves,  a  court  for 
the  women  and  one  for  the  men,  with  gates,  barracks,  and 
eating  sheds.  Some  of  the  slave  pens,  however,  were  no 
more  than  statjes  for  cattle  or  horses.  On  the  convenient 
day  they  were  placed  on  the  sales  block  and  auctioned  off 
to  the  highest  bidder.  The  slaves  themselves,  sometimes  for 
personal  advantage  in  determining  their  buyers,  aided  or 
impeded  the  sale  by  singing  their  own  praises  or  proclaim 
ing  their  shortcomings.  Thus  they  spent  weeks  and  months 
until  the  owner  drove  a  bargain  with  a  trader,  who  removed 
them  in  coffles  to  their  doom  in  the  rising  cotton  kingdom. 

7  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  229. 


Economic  Slavery  105 

In  this  way  the  Negroes  were  made  the  means  of  exploit 
ing  the  new  Southwest  by  accelerating  the  westward  move 
ment  from  the  South.  The  slaves  were  thereby  taken  from 
a  declining  section,  where  they  had  become  such  a  burden 
that  these  States  would  have  necessarily  become  antislavery, 
had  they  remained.  These  blacks  were  carried  to  the  cotton 
district,  where  they  were  apparently  profitable  servants  in 
developing  a  new  industry.  The  85,000,000  pounds  of  cot 
ton  produced  in  1810  doubled  by  1820,  doubled  again  during 
the  next  decade,  and  doubled  still  once  more  by  1840.  This 
was  then  about  two-thirds  of  the  cotton  production  in  the 
world.  After  that  period  there  was  no  question  as  to  our 
leadership  in  the  production  of  this  raw  material. 

What,  then,  was  the  plantation  system,  serving  as  the 
basis  of  this  large  cotton  industry?  This  was  the  method 
of  cultivating  an  estate  of  hundreds  and  sometimes  thou 
sands  of  acres.  The  administration  centered  The 
in  the  residence  of  the  planter  or,  in  case  of  plantation, 
absentee  ownership,  in  the  home  of  the  manager  of  the 
estate.  Nearby  stood  the  stable,  smoke  house,  corn  house, 
and  a  little  farther  away  appeared  the  garden,  potato  field, 
watermelon  patch,  and  the  like.  Somewhat  distant  from  this 
central  building  were  the  homes  of  the  slaves,  commonly 
known  as  quarters.  These  were  in  most  cases  rude  huts, 
often  with  dirt  floors  and  so  poorly  constructed  as  to  fur 
nish  little  protection  from  bad  weather.  Furniture  was 
generally  lacking  unless  the  few  stools  and  the  beds  of 
straw  be  worthy  of  such  designation.  In  some  cases  the 
slaves  were  allowed  to  till  a  patch  of  ground  on  which  they 
produced  their  own  vegetables,  and  some  few  of  them  were 
permitted  to  raise  chickens  or  hogs.  They  had  to  look 
after  these  personal  affairs  at  night,  on  Sundays,  or  holi 
days,  as  their  whole  time  was  otherwise  required  in  the 
service  of  their  masters. 


106 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


In  the  case  of  just  a  few  slaves  the  master  often  worked 
with  them.  On  larger  plantations,  however,  slaves  worked 
in  gangs  under  masters  or  their  overseers,  if  the  master  had 
Slaves  at  sufficient  holdings  to  afford  such  supervision. 
work.  jn  the  culture  of  rice  the  work  could  be  so 

divided  as  to  assign  it  as  tasks,  holding  each  slave  respon 
sible  for  a  definite  accomplishment.  Some  few  planters,  like 
McDonogh  of  Louisiana,  and  Z.  Kingsley  of  Florida,  ran 


A  PLANTATION 

their  plantations  on  something  like  the  self-government 
basis.  Slaves  were  thrown  largely  on  their  own  initiative  to 
earn  what  they  could.  The  control  was  vested  in  courts,  the 
personnel  of  which  were  slaves,  and  the  administrative  of 
ficers  of  which  were  also  bondmen  carrying  out  the  man 
dates  of  these  tribunals.  Isaiah  T.  Montgomery  of  Mound 
Bayou,  Mississippi,  was  taught  with  white  children  and 
trained  as  an  accountant  to  serve  in  this  capacity  on  the 
Joseph  Davis  plantation  in  Mississippi. 


Economic  Slavery  107 

As  a  plantation  was  a  community  in  itself,  it  had  to  be 
governed  as  such.  On  large  plantations  managed  by  men 
of  foresight,  definite  rules  were  drawn  up  to  determine  the 
procedure  of  overseers  and  slaves.  These  were  intended  to 
maintain  the  government  of  the  slaves,  produce  Plantation 
the  largest  crop  possible,  and  at  the  same  time  management, 
to  exercise  such  care  over  the  bondmen  as  not  to  lose  any 
of  them  by  unnecessary  harsh  treatment  and  neglect  of 
their  health.  On  some  plantations,  however,  masters  either 
worked  to  their  own  detriment  by  driving  their  slaves  to  an 
untimely  death,  or  by  the  absentee  ownership  procedure, 
permitted  their  overseers  to  do  so.  This  was  often  true  in 
cases  in  which  overseers  were  paid  by  giving  them  a  share  of 
the  crop.  The  abuses  practiced  by  these  managers  caused 
many  planters  to  brand  them  as  being  a  negligent,  selfish, 
and  dishonest  class.  The  situation  was  not  any  better  when 
the  slaves  were  placed  under  a  Negro  driver. 

Slaves  were  not  generally  cared  for  when  sick.  Women 
in  pregnancy  were  more  neglected  than  ever,  and  some 
worked  too  hard  to  bear  healthy  children.  Many  slaves 
were  not  given  sufficient  of  the  simple  corn-  The  care 
bread,  bacon  and  salt  herrings  they  were  al-  of  slaves, 
lowed,  and  a  still  larger  number  were  not  adequately 
clothed.  Negroes  supplemented  their  rations  by  hunting  and 
trapping  at  night.  Some  of  them,  by  working  at  night, 
accumulated  means  by  which  they  added  to  the  meager 
provisions  for  their  families  supplied  by  their  masters. 
A  few  hoarded  considerable  sums  with  which  they  pur 
chased  their  freedom  and  made  their  way  to  free  States 
where  they  established  themselves  anew.  Others  had  to 
steal  to  obtain  a  subsistence,  and  were  even  encouraged  to 
do  so  by  parsimonious  masters. 

Above  all,  punishments  were  crude  and  abusive.  Be 
cause  it  would  be  prejudicial  to  their  own  economic  inter 
ests,  masters  no  longer  mutilated  Negroes  or  destroyed  them 


108  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

on  the  wheel,  as  in  the  eighteenth  century,  unless  it  was  ab 
solutely  necessary;  but  flogging,  unmerciful  beating  and 
even  burning  at  the  stake  sometimes  followed.  In  cases  of 
unruly  Negroes  they  were  sold  South,  where 
they  faced  the  alternative  of  either  yielding 
or  being  punished  to  death.  The  runaway  slaves  were 
hunted  with  dogs.  When  brought  back  they  were  put  in 
heavy  iron  shackles  or  collars  and  sometimes  subjected  to 
such  tortures  as  drawing  out  the  toe-nails.  Those  persisting 
in  resisting  their  masters  were  sometimes  murdered.  These 
conditions,  however,  differed  from  plantation  to  plantation, 
according  to  the  liberality  of  the  master. 

The  slave,  after  the  reaction,  was  not  generally  allowed 
any  chance  for  mental  development,  of  course,  and  could 
not  learn  to  appreciate  religion.  Planters  in  some  parts, 
Enlightenment  thinking  that  the  teaching  of  religion  might 
prohibited.  jea(j  to  faQ  teaching  of  letters,  prohibited  it 

entirely.  The  best  slaves  could  then  do  for  mental  de 
velopment  was  to  learn  by  contact  and  by  stealth.  Many  a 
sympathetic  person  taught  slaves  to  read,  and  in  some  cases 
private  teachers  were  bold  enough  to  maintain  schools  for 
them,  as  was  done  in  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Norfolk. 

How  some  of  these  slaves  learned  in  spite  of  opposition 
makes  a  beautiful  story.  Knowing  the  value  of  learning 
as  a  means  of  escape  and  having  a  longing  for  it,  too,  be- 
Stealing  cause  it  was  forbidden,  many  slaves  continued 

learning.  their  education  under  adverse  circumstances. 

Some  of  them,  like  Frederick  Douglass,  had  the  assistance 
of  sympathetic  whites  who  were  a  law  unto  themselves; 
others  studied  privately  and  even  attended  school.  Chil 
dren  of  the  clergy,  accustomed  to  teach  slaves  to  read  the 
Bible,  were,  by  custom,  regarded  as  enjoying  an  immunity. 
Some  private  teachers  among  the  whites  encouraged 
Negroes  to  steal  away  to  secret  places  where  their  operations 
were  shielded  from  the  zealous  execution  of  the  law. 


Economic  Slavery  109 

The  majority  of  these  enlightened  slaves,  however,  learned 
by  contact,  observation  and  dint  of  energy.8  Many  of  them 
were  employed  at  such  occupations  as  to  develop  sufficient 
mental  power  to  read,  write,  and  cipher.  Learning  by 
"Blazon  it  to  the  shame  of  the  South,"  said  contact. 
Kedpath,  "the  knowledge  thus  acquired  has  been  snatched 
from  the  spare  records  of  leisure  in  spite  of  their  honest 
wishes  and  watchfulness. ' '  Many,  like  Robert  Williams  and 
Albert  T.  Jones,  stole  enough  to  enable  them  to  read  with 
ease.  Lott  Gary  heard  a  minister  preach  from  the  third 
chapter  of  St.  John,  and  on  returning  home  read  that  pas 
sage  of  scripture,  although  he  had  never  before  been  taught 
to  read  and  had  not  hitherto  made  such  an  effort.  Dr. 
Alexander  T.  Augusta  of  Virginia  learned  to  read  while 
serving  white  men  as  a  barber.  President  Scarborough  of 
Wilberforce  was  taught  by  one  J.  C.  Thomas,  a  cruel  south 
erner  of  the  bitterest  type. 

In  spite  of  their  circumstances  a  few  slaves  experienced 
another  sort  of  mental  development.  Being  in  a  rapidly 
growing  country  where  the  pioneers  had  to  make  use  of  the 
forces  of  nature,  here  and  there  a  slave  became  inventions 
an  inventor.  According  to  the  opinion  of  of  slaves. 
Henry  E.  Baker,  an  examiner  in  the  United  States  Patent 
Office,  slaves  made  certain  appliances,  experimenting  with 
the  separation  of  the  seed  from  cotton,  which,  when  observed 
by  Eli  Whitney,  were  assembled  by  him  as  the  cotton  gin. 
Freedmen,  during  these  years,  were  more  successful.  While 
James  Forten,  a  free  Negro  of  Philadelphia,  was  making 
a  fortune  out  of  his  new  device  which  he  perfected  for 
handling  sails,  Henry  Blair,  of  Maryland,  interested  in 
labor  saving,  patented  two  corn  harvesters  in  1834  and  in 
1836.  Norbert  Rillieux,  a  man  of  color  in  Louisiana, 
patented  an  evaporating  pan  by  which  the  refining  of  sugar 

s  C.  G.  Woodson,  Education  of  the  Negro  Prior  to  1861,  Ch.  IX. 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Economic  Slavery  111 

was  revolutionized.  There  is  much  evidence  that  some 
of  the  inventions  brought  out  by  white  persons  in  the  South 
prior  to  the  Civil  War  were  devices  invented  by  Negroes. 
The  slave  as  such,  according  to  an  opinion  of  Jeremiah  S. 
Black,  attorney-general  of  the  United  States  in  1858,  could 
not  be  granted  a  patent,  for  the  reason  that  the  slave  could 
neither  contract  with  the  government  nor  assign  his  inven 
tion  to  his  master.  Confronting  this  problem,  when  Ben 
jamin  T.  Montgomery,  a  slave  of  Jefferson  Davis,  was  on 
this  ground  denied  a  patent  on  an  invention,  the  President 
of  the  Confederate  States  secured  the  enactment  of  the  law 
providing  for  patenting  inventions  of  slaves.9 

In  spite  of  these  notable  exceptions  under  this  economic 
system,  however,  the  Negro  race  became  an  element  with 
which  the  whites  would  not  deal  as  man  with  man.     The 
whites  were  by  law  and  public  opinion  re-        Negroes 
strained  from  accepting  Negroes  as  their  so-        socially 
cial  equals,  and  miscegenation  of  Negro  men 
and  white  women  was  penalized  as  a  high  crime,  although 
there   were   always   a   few   instances   of   such   association. 
Abdy,  who  toured  the  country  from  1833  to  1834,  doubted 
that  such  laws  were  enforced.     "A  Negro  man,"  said  he, 
"was  hanged  not  long  ago  for  this  crime  at  New  Orleans. 
The  partner  of  his  guilt — his  master's  daughter — endeav 
ored  to  save  his  life,  by  avowing  that  she  alone  was  to 
blame.     She  died  shortly  after  his  execution." 

With  the  white  man  and  the  Negro  woman,  however,  the 
situation  was  different.  A  sister  of  President  Madison  once 
said  to  the  Reverend  George  Bourne,  then  a  Presbyterian 

9  This  law  was : 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  in  case  the  original  inventor  or 
discoverer  of  the  art,  machine  or  improvement  for  which  a  patent 
is  solicited  is  a  slave,  the  master  of  such  slave  may  take  oath  that 
the  said  slave  was  the  original ;  and  on  complying  with  the  requisites 
of  the  law  shall  receive  a  patent  for  said  discovery  or  invention,  and 
have  all  the  rights  to  which  a  patentee  is  entitled  by  law. 


112  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

minister  in  Virginia:  "We  Southern  ladies  are  compli 
mented  with  the  name  of  wives;  but  we  are  only  the  mis- 
A  weakness  tresses  of  seraglios. ' ' 10  But  the  masters  of 
of  the  the  female  slaves  were  not  the  only  persons 

of  such  loose  morals.  Many  women  of  color 
were  prostituted  also  to  the  purposes  of  young  white  men 
and  overseers.  Goodell  reports  a  well-authenticated  ac 
count  of  a  respectable  ' l  Christian ' '  lady  at  the  South,  who 
kept  a  handsome  mulatto  female  for  the  use  of  her  genteel 
son,  as  a  method  of  deterring  him,  as  she  said,  ' i  from  indis 
criminate  and  vulgar  indulgences."  Harriet  Martineau 
discovered  a  young  white  man  who  on  visiting  a  southern 
lady  became  insanely  enamored  of  her  intelligent  quadroon 
maid.  He  sought  to  purchase  her,  but  the  owner  refused  to 
sell  the  slave  because  of  her  unusual  worth.  The  young 
man  persisted  in  trying  to  effect  this  purchase  and  finally 
informed  her  owner  that  he  could  not  live  without  this  at 
tractive  slave.  Thereupon  the  white  lady  sold  the  woman 
of  color  to  satisfy  the  lust  of  her  friend. 

Against  the  hardships  of  the  system  numerous  slaves  re 
belled.  Most  of  them  did  nothing  to  injure  their  masters, 
so  thoroughly  had  they  become  intimidated  after  Nat  Tur- 
The  runaway  ner's  fate,  but  they  endeavored  to  make  their 
slave.  escape  into  the  woods,  too  often  only  to  be 

brought  back  after  a  few  weeks'  adventure.  The  newspa 
pers  quickly  proclaimed  the  news  of  a  runaway,  offering 
in  its  advertisements  some  attractive  reward.  White  men 
assisted  with  firearms,  and  bloodhounds  trained  to  run  down 
fugitives,  hunted  them  like  game  even  in  the  North.  That 
section,  struck  by  the  inhuman  methods  to  recapture  slaves, 
passed  personal  liberty  laws  to  prevent  the  return  of  the 
Negroes  apprehended,  as  many  of  these  were  kidnapped 

10  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  ITT,  p.  350. 


Economic  Slavery 


113 


free  persons  taken  under  pretext  of  being  runaways.11 
These  laws,  however,  were  nullified  by  the  decisions  of  the 
federal  courts  and  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850,  which 
undertook  to  impress  into  the  service  of  slave-hunting  men 
who  were  conscientiously  opposed  to  the  institution.  The 
North  was  then  the  scene  of  the  most  disgraceful  deeds, 


THE  PURSUIT 

which  aroused  the  consciences  of  the  people  and  swelled  the 
ranks  of  the  abolition  minority  which  at  one  time  seemed 
to  decline  to  meet  premature  death. 

The  efforts  of  the  slaves  to  escape  from  bondage,  how 
ever,  were  unusually  successful  in  the  Appalachian  moun 
tains,  where  there  had  been  retained  a  healthy  sentiment 
against  slavery.     The  mountaineers  of  North  Fugitives. 
Carolina,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee   organized   antislavery 


11  These 
Bondage. 


Laws    are    collected    in    Kurd's    Law    of    Freedom    and 


114  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

societies  during  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
When  that  movement  became  unpopular  they  generally  sup 
ported  the  cause  of  colonization,  which  served  as  the  best 
solution  of  the  immediate  problem  of  the  race;  for  the 
frontiersmen  were  not  particularly  attached  to  the  Negro 
race  but  felt  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was  an  economic 
evil  of  which  the  country  should  rid  itself  by  a  system  of 
gradual  emancipation  as  soon  as  possible.  When,  however, 
the  conditions  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South  became  so  in 
tolerable  that  it  was  necessary  to  flee  for  larger  liberty  in 
the  Northern  States,  they  found  it  easy  to  make  their  way 
through  this  region  where  the  farmers  were  not  attached 
to  the  institution.  It  was  of  some  help,  too,  that  they  could 
easily  hide  in  the  mountains  and  in  the  limestone  regions 
which  furnished  comfortable  caves.  The  promoters  of  the 
Underground  Railroad,  therefore,  offered  them  a  way  of 
escape  by  extending  their  system  southward  through  the 
The  mountains  of  these  States  so  as  to  connect  with 

Underground  the  fugitives  escaping  thither.  These  lines  led 
Railroad.  through  Kentucky  into  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illi 

nois,  and  connected  with  the  Great  Lakes,  over  which  the 
fugitives  passed  into  Canada,  under  the  guidance  of  persons 
like  the  heroic  Josiah  Henson,  Harriett  Tubman,  and  John 
Brown.12 

Slaves  in  urban  communities  enjoyed  more  privileges. 
Employed  in  the  trades  and  domestic  service  affording  close 
contact  with  their  masters,  they  were  economically  better 
Town  slaves,  off  than  the  free  Negroes  whom  they  often 
doomed  to  poverty  by  crowding  them  out  of  the  various 
pursuits  of  labor.  There  was  scarcely  any  industry  in 
which  slaves  did  not  engage,  and  in  most  cases  to  the 
exclusion  or  at  the  expense  of  the  poor  whites  as  well  as  of 
the  free  blacks.  Some  contractors  owned  their  workmen 

12  W.  H.  Siebert,  Underground  Railroad,  p.   166. 


Economic  Slavery 


115 


just  as  masters  owned  the  Negroes  on  their  plantations. 
Master    mechanics    less    favorably     circumstanced    hired 
slaves.    In  a  few  cases  slaves  were  employed  under  the  di 
rection   of   a  slave   master  mechanic   who   took   contracts, 
managed  the  business,  and  reported  to  the  master  at  cer 
tain  periods.     It  was  soon  learned,  however,  that  a  slave 
as  such  easily  competed  with  free  Negroes  and  whites.     It 
was,    therefore,    necessary 
for   the   masters   to   grant 
such    bondmen    the    larger 
freedom    of    profit-sharing 
or  of  hiring  themselves  to 
stimulate   them   to   greater 
endeavor.        This      custom 
proved  prejudicial  to  white 
mechanics,   and   in  several 
States  laws  were  passed  to 
prevent  the  hiring  of  slaves 
to    themselves.      But    this 
custom  continued  in   spite 
of  strenuous  efforts  to  the 
contrary,    as    the    enforce 
ment  of  it  would  have  ma 
terially  restricted  the   use 
of    slaves.      Many    slaves 
thus  employed  were  cheated 
in  the  end  by  dishonest  contractors,  but  others  more  fortu 
nately  situated  contrived  thereby  to  purchase  their  own 
freedom   and   that   of   their   families.     To   do   this   many 
Negroes  worked   at  night   after  finishing   their   tasks  by 
day,  but  this  privilege  served  as  another  reason  for  legis 
lation  against  this  custom,  as  it  would  lead  to  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  free  Negroes  who  might  promote  servile 
insurrection. 

In  the  city,  too,  it  was  possible  for  the  Negroes  to  main- 


HARRIETT  TUBMAN 


116  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

tain  among  themselves  certain  social  distinctions  based 
upon  their  advantages  of  contact  with  the  whites  and  the 
amount  of  culture  they  had  taken  over.  Those  employed 
Social  in  the  higher  pursuits  of  labor  and  as  domestic 

distinctions,  servants  to  the  rich  whites  were  enabled  by 
the  working-over  of  cast-off  clothes  and  imitating  their 
masters'  language  and  airs,  to  lord  it  over  the  crude  slaves 
of  the  fields.  In  culture  the  less  fortunate  Negroes  were 
further  separated  from  these  urban  free  blacks  than  the 
latter  were  from  the  whites.  In  their  social  affairs  they 
sometimes  had  much  liberty  and  apparently  experienced 
much  joy.  They  so  impressed  travelers  with  their  content 
ment  in  this  situation  that  some  concluded  that  the  Negroes 
had  no  serious  objection  to  their  enslavement. 

Slavery  as  an  economic  system,  however,  required  more 
restriction  in  religious  matters,  especially  after  the  South 
ampton  insurrection.  Northern  Negroes  undertook  to  ex 
tend  the  work  of  their  independent  connections  into  the 
Eestrictions  South,  as  in  the  case  of  Charleston,  South 
on  religious  Carolina,  to  which  the  African  Methodists, 
after  their  withdrawal  from  the  whites,  sum 
moned  Negroes  to  be  ordained  to  serve  in  that  city.  This 
freedom  of  action,  however,  was  too  much  for  the  South,  and 
the  independent  church  movement  there  was  stopped. 
Meetings  were  prohibited  and  the  bishop,  his  exhorters,  and 
immediate  followers  were  ordered  to  be  imprisoned  if  they 
did  not  depart  from  the  State,  while  others  were  fined  or 
given  a  number  of  lashes.  As  Negroes  were  thereafter 
forced  to  accept  what  accommodations  were  given  them  in 
the  white  churches,  they  gradually  yielded  room  to  the  in 
creasing  membership  of  the  whites  until  the  blacks  were 
forced  to  the  galleries  or  compelled  to  hold  special  services 
following  those  of  the  whites.  A  refusal  of  Negroes  to  give 
up  to  the  whites  prominent  seats  long  occupied  by  them  in 
a  church  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  led  to  their  ejection 


Economic  Slavery  117 

by  a  group  of  white  youths.  When  criticized  for  this  these 
young  members  behaved  so  unbecomingly  that  nine  of  them 
had  to  be  expelled;  but  to  show  their  attachment  to  the 
southern  policy  one  hundred  and  fifty  others  left  with 
them. 

Unsuccessful  efforts  were  then  made  to  establish  separate 
churches  for  the  slaves,  like  the  Calvary  Church  in  Charles 
ton,  and  the  African  Baptist  Church  in  Richmond.  For 
feigned  reasons  the  legal  endorsement  for  the  Negro 
latter  was  not  given  until  1855,  and  then  churches, 
on  the  condition  that  a  white  minister  be  employed.  In 
the  churches  in  the  cities  in  the  border  States,  however, 
there  was  more  religious  freedom  among  the  slaves.  There 
was  a  Baptist  Church  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  1830. 
George  Bentley,  a  Negro  preacher  of  polemic  distinction, 
was  preaching  to  the  most  enlightened  whites  as  well  as 
blacks  in  Giles  County,  Tennessee,  in  1859;  and  Henry 
Evans,  a  shoemaker  and  licensed  Methodist  minister, 
preached  with  such  success  for  the  conversion  of  the  sinful 
in  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina,  that  from  his  efforts  there 
was  organized  a  church  with  a  membership  drawn  from 
both  races.  The  white  members  became  so  numerous  that 
they  crowded  out  the  Negroes.  In  the  large  cities  there  was 
still  more  religious  freedom.  Washington  Negroes  had 
several  churches  early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  Balti 
more  had  ten  churches  for  slave  and  free  Negroes  in 
1834. 

The  South,  however,  had  succeeded  in  hedging  in  the 
Negro  so  that  he  might  forever  afterward  do  the  will  of 
his  master,  but  this  seemingly  sane  method  of  developing 
the  South  was  what  resulted  in  its  undoing.     siavery  the 
Since  migration  of  slaveholders  promoted  a     undoing  of 
segregation  of  planters  of  the  same  class,  mov-  }      * 

ing  under  similar  conditions  and  to  the  same  section,  it  made 
reform  almost  an  impossibility,  and  in  preventing  the  im- 


118  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

migration  of  white  laborers  into  the  slave  States  the  system 
became  so  strongly  intrenched  that  it  had  to  be  attacked 
from  without.  In  the  first  place,  in  the  effort  to  exploit 
black  men  it  transformed  white  men  into  bloodthirsty  be 
ings.  The  system,  moreover,  promoted  the  formation  of 
wasteful  habits.  It  prevented  the  growth  of  towns  and  cities 
and  shut  out  manufacturing,  leaving  the  South  dependent 
on  the  North  or  European  nations  for  its  manufactures. 
While  the  North  was  receiving  an  influx  of  free  laborers  the 
South  was  increasing  unnecessarily  its  slave  labor  supply, 
indulging  in  unwise  investments,  and  overstocking  the  mar 
kets  with  southern  staple  crops.  In  making  labor  undigni 
fied,  moreover,  it  reduced  the  poor  whites  to  poverty,  caused 
a  scarcity  of  money,  cheapened  land,  and  confined  the  South 
to  one-crop  farming  at  the  expense  of  its  undeveloped 
resources. 

The  economic  interests  of  the  two  sections,  therefore, 
began  to  differ  widely  during  the  thirties.  When  Missouri 
asked  for  admission  to  the  Union,  the  struggle  which  ensued 
Differing  emphasized  these  differences.  Prior  to  this 

interests.  period  slavery  had  well  established  itself  in 

that  territory.  When  everything  had  been  arranged  and 
Congress  was  about  to  pass  the  bill  providing  for  its  ad 
mission,  James  Talmadge,  a  representative  from  New  York, 
upset  things  by  offering  an  amendment  providing  that  slav 
ery  should  not  be  allowed  in  that  territory.  This  led  to  a 
fiery  debate  participated  in  by  the  stalwart  defenders  of  the 
proslavery  section  of  the  country  and  by  the  Congressmen 
of  the  North,  who  although  at  that  time  unprepared  to  ad 
vocate  a  general  abolition  of  slavery,  were  convinced  that 
it  was  an  evil  and  desired  to  prohibit  its  expansion.  It  was 
pointed  out  by  the  antislavery  element  that  some  of  the 
State  of  Missouri  lies  farther  north  than  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio  River,  above  which  slavery  was  prohibited  by  the 


Economic  Slavery  119 

Ordinance  of  1787  organizing  the  Northwest  Territory.13 
The  main  question  was  whether  or  not  Congress  had  any 
right  to  limit  a  State  coming  into  the  Union.  Decidedly  it 
had,  but  it  was  necessary  to  argue  the  question.  It  was 
pointed  out  that  in  the  admission  of  the  State  of  Louisiana 
Congress  imposed  certain  conditions  requiring  that  the 
State  should  use  the  English  language  as  its  official  tongue, 
should  guarantee  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  trial  by 
jury,  and  incorporate  into  its  organic  laws  the  fundamental 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  They  could  have 
pointed  out,  too,  that  Ohio  was  required  to  comply  with  a 
number  of  requirements,  among  which  was  the  use  of  certain 
of  its  lands  in  the  Western  Reserve  and  in  the  southeast.14 

The  antislavery  group,  moreover,  contended  that  inas 
much  as  Congress  is  required  by  the  Constitution  to  guar 
antee  to  each  State  a  republican  form  of  government 
it  was  necessary  to  prohibit  slavery,  which  Binding 
was  incompatible  with  that  form  of  govern-  a  state- 
ment.  The  proslavery  party  supported  their  cause  on  the 
ground  that  to  impose  a  restriction  on  a  State  would  place 
it  on  a  basis  of  inequality  rather  than  that  of  equality 
with  other  States.  The  privileges  enjoyed  by  one  State 
should  be  enjoyed  by  all.  If  one  had  the  right  to  hold 
slaves,  all  should  enjoy  the  same  privilege  as  they  had  when 
all  were  admitted  to  the  Union.  It  was  contended,  more 
over,  that  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  Gov- 

13  There  are  discussions  of  the  constitutional  question  growing  out 
of  slavery  in  Herman  von  Hoist's  The  Constitutional  and  Political 
History   of    the    United   States    of   America,    in   John    W.    Burgess's 
Middle  Period  and  his  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction,  and  in  James 
Ford  Rhodes'  History  of  the  United  States,  Chs.  VI  and  VII.    Burgess 
and  Rhodes,  however,  are  generally  biased. 

14  Restrictions  were  also  imposed  later  on  California  when  it  was 
provided  that  the  duties  on  goods  imported  there  should  have  to  be 
fixed  according  to  terms  set  forth  in  the  amendment  to  the  regular 
navy  act. 


120  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

eminent  nor  prohibited  to  the  States  were  reserved  to  the 
States.  The  question  as  to  whether  a  State  should  hold 
slaves,  therefore,  was  reserved  to  that  commonwealth  and 
Congress  had  no  right  to  interfere  therewith. 

It  was  asserted  also,  as  was  admitted  thereafter,  that  the 
restriction  against  slavery  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  was 
not  binding  on  those  States  of  the  territory  that  had  been 
The  Ordinance  admitted  to  the  Union,  and  that  they  could  in- 
of  1787.  troduce  slavery  when  they  desired.15  The 

proslavery  leaders  believed  that  the  institution  of  slavery 
would  be  beneficial  to  the  country  rather  than  an  evil,  in  that 
it  would  provide  for  an  extension  of  the  system,  reducing 
the  number  held  by  each  person  and,  therefore,  bringing  the 
slave  into  more  direct  and  helpful  contact  with  the  master. 
The  agitation  was  quieted  for  the  time  being,  after  the 
compromise  permitting  Missouri  to  come  into  the  Union  as 
a  slave  State  but  prohibiting  the  institution  south  of  parallel 
thirty-six,  thirty  constituting  the  southern  limit  of  Missouri. 

Another  important  question  came  forward  in  the  Missouri 
debate  when  the  question  had  been  all  but  settled,  that  is, 
when  the  State  had  framed  a  constitution  in  keeping  with 
Tne  the  instructions  given  in  the  enabling  act,  but 

citizenship  had  incorporated  into  this  document  a  clause 
egroes.  providing  for  the  exclusion  of  free  Negroes 
from  that  commonwealth.  This  provision  was  seriously 
attacked  by  the  friends  of  justice,  arguing  that  inasmuch  as 
these  Negroes  were  citizens  of  the  United  States,  no  State 
had  a  right  to  restrict  their  privileges,  as  such  action  would 
conflict  with  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which 
guarantees  to  the  citizens  of  each  commonwealth  all  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  every  other  com 
monwealth.  This  drove  home  the  real  truth  which  the 

T«  J.  P.  Dunn,  Indiana;  A  Redemption  from  Slavery,  pp.  218-260; 
N.  D.  Harris,  The  History  of  Negro  Servitude  in  Illinois,  Chs.  Ill, 
IV  and  V;  and  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  Old  Northwest,  pp.  351-358. 


Economic  Slavery  121 

country  had  not  before  realized,  that  there  was  such  a  thing 
as  citizenship  of  the  United  States  in  contradistinction  to 
citizenship  in  a  State,  and  that  the  citizenship  of  the  United 
States  is  more  than  citizenship  of  a  State.    When  a  citizen, 
therefore,  immigrated  into  and  settled  in  another  State,  he 
should  not,  according  to  the  Constitution,  lose  the  right  to 
be  treated  as  a  citizen  of  that  commonwealth.     When  this 
involved  the  rights  of  the  Negro  it  was  certainly  startling 
to  the  representatives  of  the  South ;  and  Missouri,  for  that 
reason,   if  for  no  other,   was  less  inclined  than  ever  to 
change  that  provision  of  its  Constitution.    The  matter  was 
settled  by  a  second  compromise,  to  counteract  the  effect  this 
clause  might  have,  by  providing  that  nothing  therein  con 
tained  should  be  so  construed  as  to  give  the  assent  of  Con 
gress  to  any  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  Missouri  which 
contravened  that  clause  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  which  declares  that  the  citizens  of  each  State  shall 
be  entitled  to  all  of  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens 
in  the  several  States. 

Slavery  again  showed  its  far-reaching  effects.  Dur 
ing  the  first  three  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
South,  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  became  a  section 
dependent  solely  on  its  peculiar  institution,  a  Slavery  and 
district  devoted  entirely  to  agriculture  and  the  tariff, 
almost  solidly  organized  in  defending  such  interests.  For 
this  reason  the  South  developed  into  a  mere  plantation. 
The  North,  on  the  other  hand,  in  view  of  the  shipping 
industry,  its  commerce,  and  the  manufacturing,  which  of 
necessity  grew  during  the  war  of  1812  and  decidedly 
expanded  thereafter,  developed  a  number  of  business  and 
industrial  centers  desirous  of  protecting  their  industries 
by  imposing  certain  duties  on  goods  imported  from 
Europe.  This  caused  a  shift  in  the  positions  of  the  lead 
ers  of  these  two  sections.  Whereas,  in  1816,  John  C. 
Calhoun  was  an  advocate  of  a  protective  tariff  and  Daniel 


122  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Webster  was  a  free  trader,  in  1832  Webster  was  in  favor 
of  import  duties  and  Calhoun  had  constructed  a  policy  of 
free  trade.  With  the  support  of  the  West,  desiring  a  pro 
tective  duty  on  its  hemp  and  the  like,  the  manufacturing 
districts  were  able  to  secure  the  enactment  of  tariff-for- 
protection  measures  in  1824,  1828  and  1832.16 

Against  the  protective  tariff  the  commonwealths  of  the 
South  began  to  argue  that  it  was  discriminatory  and  there 
fore  unconstitutional,  in  that  it  imposed  a  tax  upon  one 
Opposition  to  section  for  the  benefit  of  the  other.  Congress, 
the  tariff.  as  the  South  saw  it,  had  no  right  to  legislate 

in  behalf  of  one  section  at  the  expense  of  the  other.  So  bit 
ter  did  the  South  become  because  of  this  seeming  imposition 
that  in  1832  South  Carolina  undertook  to  nullify  the  tariff 
law  of  1832,  believing  very  much  as  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
had  in  1798,  that  a  State  had  a  right  to  obey  or  to  nullify 
a  law  passed  by  Congress,  if,  in  its  judgment,  it  found  out 
that  that  law  was  prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  State 
concerned. 

It  was  made  clear,  moreover,  that  South  Carolina  was 
of  the  opinion  that  this  country  was  not  a  Union  but  still 
a  Confederation  loosely  held  together  very  much  as  the 
A  union  or  a  States  were  under  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
confederacy?  tion  ^  State,  therefore,  as  long  as  it  chose 
to  be  bound  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  could  continue 
to  do  so,  but  if  at  any  time  it  felt  that  the  union  with  the 
other  States  was  undesirable,  it  could  of  itself  or  in  con 
nection  with  a  number  of  States  constituting  a  majority 
call  a  convention  representing  the  same  power  by  which  the 
Constitution  was  ratified  and  declare  the  severance  of  the 
ties  that  bound  them  to  the  Union. 

It  was  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  Union  to  take  high 
ground  for  its  own  self-preservation.  Although  Andrew 

16  See  Calhoun's  speech  in  the  Appendix. 


Economic  Slavery  123 

Jackson,  then  President  of  the  United  States,  did  not  hold 
any  brief  for  the  tariif  himself,  he  could  not  countenance 
the  act  of  nullification.  He,  therefore,  threatened  to  use 
force  should  South  Carolina  refuse  to  obey  the  laws  of  Con 
gress.  This  matter,  like  others  threatening  the  foundation 
of  the  Union,  was  settled  by  a  compromise  brought  for 
ward  by  Henry  Clay  to  the  effect  that  the  duties  would 
remain  as  they  were  under  the  law  of  1832,  but  by  a  gradual 
process  would  be  diminished  until  they  reached  the  rates 
acceptable  to  South  Carolina. 

Slavery  brought  out  also  another  economic  question  in 
connection  with  internal  improvements.  It  was  difficult  for 
a  slaveholding  section  to  expand  as  rapidly  as  the  manu 
facturing  and  commercial  parts  of  the  country.  In  this  all 
but  phenomenal  growth  of  the  United  States  internal 
there  was  an  urgent  need  for  canals  and  roads  improvements, 
to  tap  the  resources  of  the  interior.  As  the  South  in  its 
slow  development  did  not  feel  this  need  and  thought  that  it 
would  not  generally  profit  by  these  improvements,  it  usually 
opposed  them  on  the  grounds  that  the  United  States 
Government  had  no  authority  to  make  such  improvements 
and  the  States  had  not  the  required  funds.  This  opposition 
resulted  from  the  observation  that  these  improvements  were 
unifying  influences  which  strengthened  the  Union  at  the 
expense  of  the  South,  which  hoped  to  hold  the  axe  of 
secession  over  the  heads  of  the  Unionists. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   FREE   NEGRO 

WHILE  the  fate  of  the  slaves  in  the  South  was  being 
determined,  there  was  also  a  considerable  number  of  free 
persons  of  color  whose  status  was  ever  changing.  Few 
people  now  realize  the  extent  to  which  the  free  Negro 
The  status  of  ngure(l  in  the  population  of  this  country  prior 
the  free  to  the  Civil  War.1  Before  slavery  was  re- 

egro'  duced  from  a  patriarchial  establishment  to  the 

mere  business  of  exploiting  men,  a  considerable  number  of 
Negroes  had  secured  their  freedom,  and  the  fruits  of  the 
American  Revolution,  effective  long  thereafter  in  ameliorat 
ing  their  condition,  gave  an  impetus  to  manumission.  In 
some  colonies  Negroes  were  indentured  servants  before 
they  were  slaves,  and  became  free  upon  the  expiration  of 
their  term  of  service.  The  result  was  that  there  were  in  this 
country  in  1790  as  many  as  59,557  free  people  of  color, 
35,000  of  whom  were  living  in  the  South.  During  the  two 
decades  from  1790  to  1810,  the  rate  of  increase  of  free 
Negroes  exceeded  that  of  the  slaves,  and  the  proportion  of 
free  Negroes  in  the  black  population  increased  accordingly 
from  7.9  per  cent  in  1790  to  13.5  per  cent  in  1810.  After 

iJohn  H.  Russell,  The  Free  Negro  in  Virginia,  passim;  E.  R. 
Turner,  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania;  F.  U.  Quillin,  The  Color  Line  vn 
Ohio,  passim;  C.  T.  Hickok/TVie  Negro  in  Ohio,  passim;  C.  G.  Wood- 
son,  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  pp.  1-100;  the  Journal  of  Negro 
History,  I,  1-68,  99-100,  203-242,  302-317,  361-376;  II,  51-78,  164-185; 
III,  90-91,  196-197,  360-367,  435-441,  and  Negro  Population  in  the 
United  States,  1190  to  1915. 

124 


The  Free  Negro  125 

this  date  the  tendency  was  in  the  other  direction  because  of 
the  reaction  against  the  Negro,  bringing  about  a  restriction 
on  manumissions. 

Between  1810  and  1840  the  Negro  population  almost 
doubled,  but  the  proportion  of  the  free  Negroes  remained 
about  the  same.  Because  of  further  restriction  on  manu 
mission  and  the  more  secure  foundation  of  Slow  increase, 
economic  slavery  with  rigid  regulations  to  prevent  the 
fugitives  from  escaping,  this  proportion  of  free  Negroes  in 
the  black  population  decreased  to  11.9  per  cent  by  1850  and 
to  18  per  cent  by  1860.  While  the  Negro  population  as  a 
whole  doubled  its  percentage  of  increase,  then,  that  of  the 
free  blacks  declined.  It  became  smaller  in  parts  of  the 
North  and  declined  to  one-fourth  of  the  rate  of  increase 
between  1800  to  1810.  In  1860  the  rate  of  increase  was 
about  one  per  cent  a  year.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  however, 
that  there  were  434,455  free  Negroes  in  the  United  States 
in  1850  and  488,070  in  1860.  At  this  latter  date  83,942 
of  these  were  in  Maryland,  58,042  in  Virginia,  30,463  in 
North  Carolina,  18,467  in  Louisiana,  11,131  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  10,638  in  Kentucky;  in  short,  250,787  in  the 
whole  South. 

This  increase  of  free  Negroes  was  largely  a  natural 
growth.  There  had  been,  of  course,  some  additions  by  pur 
chases  of  freedom  and  the  acquisition  of  new  territory. 
They  did  not  immigrate  into  this  country,  increase  a 
for  only  7,011  free  Negroes  enumerated  in 
1860  were  born  abroad.  Some  idea  as  to  the 
extent  other  factors  figured  in  this  may  be  obtained  from 
the  fact  that  1,467  Negroes  were  manumitted  in  1859  and 
1,011  became  fugitives.  In  1859  there  were  3,000  manu 
missions  and  803  fugitives.  The  census  of  1860  reports 
that  probably  20,000  manumissions  were  made  during  the 
decade  between  1850  and  1860. 


126  The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Negro  Population,  1790  to  1860 

Free  Decennial  Increase 


Census 

Per 

Number 

Per  cent 

Year 

Total 

Number 

cent 

Slave 

Free 

Slave 

Free  Slave 

1860  4 

,441,830 

488,070 

11.0 

3,953 

,760 

53,575 

749,447 

12.3 

23 

.4 

1850.  ...      3 

,638,808 

434,495 

11.9 

3,204 

,313 

48,202 

716,958 

12.5 

28 

.8 

1840  2 

,873,648 

386,293 

13.4 

2,487,355 

66,694 

478,312 

20.9 

23 

.8 

1830..     .      2 

,328,642 

319,599 

13.7 

2,009 

,043 

85,965 

471,021 

36.8 

30.6 

1820.  . 

.      1 

,771,656 

233,634 

13.2 

1,538 

,022 

47,188 

346,660 

25.3 

29 

.1 

1810.  . 

.      1 

,377,808 

186,446 

13.5 

1,191 

,362 

78,011 

297,760 

71.9 

33 

.3 

1800.  . 

.      1 

,002,037 

108,435 

10.8 

893 

,602 

48,908 

195,921 

82.2 

28 

.1 

1790.  . 

,      1 

,757,181 

59,557 

7.  .9 

697 

,624 

The  statistics  of  the  Negro  population  between  1790  and 
1915  suggest  as  an  explanation  for  this  decrease  that  the 
free  people  of  color  were  much  older  and  therefore  subject 
Sex  to  a  higher  mortality  rate;  that  they  were 

distribution.  jess  normally  distributed  by  sex  and  therefore 
probably  characterized  by  a  marital  condition  less  favor 
able  to  rapid  natural  increase.  Among  the  free  Negroes  at 
each  of  the  five  censuses,  from  1820  to  1860,  there  were 
fewer  males  than  females,  whereas  the  distribution  as  to  sex 
among  the  slaves  remained  about  equally  divided  between 
"the  two.  While  this  does  not  altogether  account  for  the 
disparity,  it  doubtless  had  something  to  do  with  the  situ 
ation,  for  the  Negroes  manumitted  were,  as  a  majority, 
men,  and  those  who  contrived  to  escape  were  largely  of  the 
same  sex.  Furthermore,  masters  controlled  the  slave  supply 
so  as  to  add  what  number  they  needed  from  whichever 
sex  seemed  deficient. 

The  customs  and  regulations  restraining  the  slaves  did 
not  generally  apply  to  the  free  people  of  color  even  when 
so  provided  by  law.  Some  of  them  were  closely  connected 
with  their  masters,  who  ^ave  ^p^  mnrft  oor\ ^deration  than 
The  status  of  that  shown  bv  many  others  wfo  sold  their 
free  Negroes.  own  flesh  and  blood.  In  spite  of  the  law  to 
the  contrary,  a  few  such  benevolent  masters  maintained 
schools  for  the  education  of  their  mulatto  children.  When 
that  became  unpopular  they  were  privately  instructed  or 
sent  to  the  North  for  education.  Charleston,  South  Caro- 


The  Free  Negro  127 

Una,  affords  a  good  example  of  the  interest  manifested  in 
the  free  people  of  color  by  the  attitude  of  citizens,  who 
winked  at  the  efforts  of  the  free  blacks  to  educate  their 
children  in  well-organized  schools  in  defiance  of  the  law. 
In  the  State  of  Louisiana,  where  many  of  these  mixed 
breeds  were  found,  their  fathers  sometimes  sent  them  to 
Paris  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advantages  of  the  best 
education  of  that  time. 

These  free  Negroes  were  not  all  on  the  same  plane.  In 
the  course  of  time  they  experienced  a  development  of  social 
distinction  which  largely  resembled  that  of  the  whites. 
There  were  treedmenlu  possession  6!  a  considerable  amounjE 
o^  jproperty,  others  who  formed  a  lower  class  of  mechanics 
and  artisans,  and  finally  those^  My*11?  with  difficulty  above 
pecuniary  embarrassment.  Among  those  in  the  large  cities 
social  lines  were  as  strongly  drawn  as  between  the  whites 
and  the  blacks,  and  the  antipathy  resulting  therefrom  was 
hardly  less. 

The  well-to-do  free  Negroes  were  not  merely  persons  with  * 
sufficient   property   to   form    an    attachment   to   the   com 
munity.    Many  of  them  owned  slaves,  who  cultivated  their 
large   estates.      Of   360   persons   of   color   in      progressive 
Charleston,  130  of  them  were,  in  1860,  assessed      freedmen. 
with  taxes  on  390  slaves.    In  some  of  these  cases,  as  in  that 
of  Marie  Louise  Bitaud,  a  free  woman  of  color  in  New  Or 
leans,  in  1832,  these  slaves  were  purchased  for  personal 
reasons  or  benevolent  purposes,  often   to  make   their  lot 
much  easier.     They  were  sometimes  sold  by  sympathetic 
white  persons  to  Negroes  for  a  nominal  sum  on  the  condition 
that  they  be  kindly  treated. 

Some  of  these  instances  are  enlightening.  A  colored  man 
in  1818  bought  a  sailmaker  in  Charleston.  Richard  Rich 
ardson  sold  a  slave  woman  and  child  for  $800  to  Alexander 
Hunter,  guardian  of  the  Negro  freeman  Louis  Mirault  of 
Savannah.  Anthony  Ordingsell,  a  free  man  of  color,  sold 


128  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

a  slave  woman  in  the  same  city  in  1833.  A  Charleston  Negro 
who  purchased  his  wife  for  $700  sold  her  at  a  profit  of 
$50  because  she  would  not  behave  herself.  To  check  this, 
laws  restricting  manumission,  as  in  Virginia  in  1806,  were 
enacted  to  limit  this  benevolence  of  white  men  by  imposing 
difficult  conditions.  Thereafter,  these  freedmen  were  to  be 
sent  out  of  the  State  unless  their  former  master  agreed  to 
support  them. 

Some  other  Negroes  of  less  distinction  accomplished 
much  to  convince  the  world  of  the  native  ability  of  the 
Negroes  to  extricate  themselves  from  peculiar  situations  and 
Undistin-  to  ma^e  progress  in  spite  of  opposition, 

guishedfree  Samuel  Martin,  a  benevolent  slaveholder  of 
Negroes.  color  residing  at  Port  Gibson,  Mississippi,  pur 

chased  his  own  freedom  in  1829,  and  thereafter  purchased 
two  mulatto  women  with  their  four  children,  brought  them 
to  Cincinnati  in  1844,  and  emancipated  them.  Another 
Negro  named  Creighton,  living  in  Charleston,  South  Caro 
lina,  accumulated  considerable  wealth  which  he  finally  de 
cided  to  devote  to  the  colonization  of  the  Negroes  in  Liberia. 
He  disposed  of  his  property,  offering  his  slaves  the  alter 
native  of  being  liberated  on  the  condition  of  accompanying 
him  to  Africa  or  of  being  sold  as  property.  Only  one  of  his 
slaves  accepted  the  offer,  but  he  closed  up  his  business  in 
Charleston,  purchased  for  the  enterprise  a  schooner  of  his 
own,  and  set  sail  for  Liberia  in  1821. 

Among  the  prosperous  free  Negroes  in  the  South  may 
be  mentioned  Jehu  Jones,  the  proprietor  of  one  of  the  most 
popular  hotels  in  Charleston  and  owner  of  forty  thousand 
Wealthy  dollars  worth  of  property.  There  lived 

persons  of  Thorny  Lafon  in  New  Orleans,  where  he  ac 
cumulated  real  estate  to  the  amount  of  almost 
half  a  million  dollars,  and  in  the  same  city  a  woman  of 
color  owning  a  tavern  and  several  slaves.  A  Negro  in 
St.  Paul 's  Parish,  South  Carolina,  was  said  to  have  two  hun- 


The  Free  Negro  129 

dred  slaves,  and  a  white  wife  and  son-in-law,  in  1857.  In 
1833  Solomon  Humphries,  a  free  Negro  well  known  by  men 
of  all  classes  in  Macon,  Georgia,  kept  a  grocery  store  there 
and  had  more  credit  than  any  other  merchant  in  the  town. 
He  had  accumulated  about  twenty  thousand  dollars  worth 
of  property,  including  a  number  of  slaves.  Cyprian  Ricard 
bought  an  estate  in  Iberville  Parish,  with  ninety-one  slaves, 
for  about  $225,000.  Marie  Metoyer,  of  Natchitoches  Parish, 
possessed  fifty  slaves  and  an  estate  of  more  than  2,000 
acres.  Charles  Rogues  of  the  same  community  left  in  1848 
forty-seven  slaves.  Martin  Donato,  of  St.  Landry,  died  in 
1848,  leaving  a  Negro  wife  and  children  possessed  of  4,500 
arpents  of  land,  eighty-nine  slaves  and  personal  property 
worth  $46,000. 

These  Negroes,  however,  were  exceptions  to  the  rule. 
Most  well-to-do  free  Negroes  in  urban  communities  be 
longed  to  the  artisan  class,  and  there  were  more  of  them 
than  one  would  think.  In  southern  cities  most  Prosperous 
of  the  work  in  the  mechanic  arts  was  done  by  mechanics, 
the  slaves,  as  there  was  less  discrimination  in  this  field  in 
the  South  than  in  the  North.  Contrasting  the  favorable 
conditions  of  southern  Negroes  with  that  of  those  in  the 
North,  a  proslavery  man  referred  to  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  as  furnishing  a  good  example  of  a  center  of  un 
usual  activity  and  rapid  strides  of  thrifty  free  Negroes. 
Enjoying  these  unusual  advantages,  the  Negroes  of  Charles 
ton  were  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  ranked  by  some  as 
economically  and  intellectually  superior  to  any  other  group 
of  such  persons  in  the  United  States.  A  large  portion  of  the 
leading  mechanics,  fashionable  tailors,  shoe  manufacturers, 
and  mantua-makers  were  free  Negroes,  who  had  "a  con 
sideration  in  the  community  far  more  than  that  enjoyed  by 
any  of  the  colored  population  in  the  northern  cities. ' ' 

What  then  was  the  situation  in  the  North  ?    The  fugitive 
slave  found  it  difficult.    Most  Negroes  who  became  free  as 


130  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

a  result  of  manumission  had  been  dependents  so  long  that 
they  lost  their  initiative.  When  thrown  upon  their  own 
resources  in  the  North  where  they  had  to  make  opportuni 
ties,  they  failed.  In  increasing  the  number  of  those  seeking 
Hardships  in  economic  opportunities  in  the  North,  more- 
the  North.  over,  they  so  cheapened  the  labor  as  to  make 
it  difficult  for  the  free  Negroes  already  there  to  earn  a  live 
lihood.  They  were,  therefore,  branded  by  the  writers  of  the 
time  as  the  pariahs  of  society.  There  was,  in  fact,  as  much 
prejudice  against  the  free  Negroes  in  parts  of  the  North  as 
in  the  South.  This  feeling,  however,  resulted  largely  from 
the  antipathy  engendered  by  the  competition  of  the  Negroes 
with  the  large  number  of  Germans  and  Scotch-Irish  immi 
grating  into  this  country  a  generation  before  the  Civil  War. 

Some  few  Negroes  facing  these  conditions  returned 
South  and  reenslaved  themselves  rather  than  starve  in  the 
North.  A  larger  number  in  the  South,  however,  were  en- 
The  return  to  slaved  against  their  wills  for  such  petty  of- 
the  South.  fenses  as  theft  and  the  like,  which  almost  any 
poverty-stricken  man  would  be  liable  to  commit.  They 
were  ordinarily  arrested  as  suspected  fugitives,  or  for  va 
grancy  and  illegal  residence,  and  finally  sold  for  jail  fees. 
As  Negroes  in  these  cases  were  not  allowed  to  testify  in  their 
own  behalf,  the  official  arresting  a  free  Negro  generally 
preferred  against  him  whatever  charge  best  suited  his  con 
venience  and  disposed  of  the  Negro  accordingly.  Eighty- 
nine  were  sold  in  Maryland  under  the  act  of  1858  justify 
ing  such  reenslavement.  Much  of  this  repression  was  in 
stituted  for  intimidation  to  keep  the  free  Negroes  down 
that  they  might  never  join  with  slaves  in  an  insurrec 
tion. 

How  did  the  situation  of  the  free  Negro  compare  with 
that  of  the  white  man?  In  the  first  place,  the  freedman 
Restrictions,  was  not  a  citizen  in  any  Southern  State  after 
1834  and  was  degraded  from  that  status  in  certain  States  in 


The  Free  Negro  131 

the  North.  In  most  States  free  persons  of  color  had  with 
some  limitations  the  right  to  own  and  alienate  property,  even 
to  own  and  sell  Negro  slaves.  Early  statutes  and  customs, 
however,  prohibited  them  from  owning  whites  as  servants, 
and  during  the  intense  slavery  agitation  of  the  thirties 
this  right  of  holding  Negroes  as  slaves  was  gradually  re 
stricted  to  whites  because  of  the  benevolent  use  made  of  it 
by  certain  Negroes,  who  purchased  more  than  their  wives 
and  children.  For  fear  of  improper  uses,  too,  free  Negroes 
in  the  South  were  not  allowed  to  own  such  property  as 
firearms,  dogs,  firelocks,  poisonous  drugs  and  intoxicants. 
As  they  were  prohibited  from  serving  in  the  State  militia, 
they  would  have  no  need  for  firearms.  The  Negro,  more 
over,  had  a  weak  title  to  property  in  himself.  If  the 
Negro's  right  to  be  free  were  questioned,  the  burden  of 
proof  lay  on  him. 

In  some  cases,  however,  the  free  Negroes  had  a  little 
chance  in  the  courts.  The  freedmen  had  the  remedy  of 
habeas  corpus.  They  could  bring  suit  against  persons  doing 
them  injury,  and  in  the  case  of  seeming  injus-  Some 
tice  in  a  lower  court  they  could  appeal  to  privileges, 
a  higher.  When  charged  with  crime  the  free  Negro  had  the 
right  to  trial  by  jury  and  could,  after  indictment,  give 
bond  for  his  liberty.  The  right  of  jury  trial  was  after  Nat 
Turner's  insurrection  in  1831  restricted  in  several  southern 
States  to  cases  punishable  by  death.  It  must  be  remem 
bered,  however,  that  the  Negro  could  not  expect  a  fair  trial ; 
for,  consistent  with  the  unwritten  primitive  law  of  the 
white  man  in  dealing  with  the  blacks,  judgment  preceded 
proof.  In  the  case  of  ordinary  misdemeanors  the  lot  of  the 
free  Negroes  was  no  better  than  that  of  the  slave.  Corporal 
punishment  in  these  cases  was  administered  to  the  Negroes 
without  stint,  whereas  a  white  man  guilty  of  the  same 
offense  would  be  requested  to  pay  a  fine.  In  most  cases  of 
felony  the  punishment  for  a  white  man  and  a  free  Negro 


132  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

was  the  same  in  the  beginning,  but  the  reaction  brought 
on  certain  distinctions. 

At  times  the  free  Negroes  could  go  and  come  to  suit  them 
selves.  During  the  ardent  slavery  agitation,  however,  it  was 
necessary  for  them  to  exhibit  their  free  papers  when  ques 
tioned.  They  were  later  restrained  from  moving  from  one 
Egress  and  State  to  another  or  even  from  one  county  to 
regress.  another  without  securing  a  permit.  In  some 

southern  States,  nearer  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  it  was  unlawful  for  a  free  Negro  to  return  to  the  State 
after  leaving,  as  he  might  be  spoiled  by  contact  or  educa 
tion. 

Although  forcing  the  free  Negroes  to  a  low  social  status, 
the  local  government  did  not  exempt  them  from  its  bur 
dens.  In  Virginia,  free  Negroes  were  required  to  pay  a  poll 
tax  of  $1.50  in  1813  and  $2.50  in  1815.  In  1814,  5,547  free 
Negroes  in  that  State  paid  $8,322  in  taxes,  and  in  1863  they 
paid  $13,065.22  in  poll  taxes.  The  Negroes  in  Baltimore 
paid  $500  in  school  taxes  in  1860,  although  their  children 
could  not  attend  the  city  schools.  Most  States  taxed  the 
free  Negroes  inconsistently  in  the  same  way. 

Socially,  the  Negro,  whether  slave  or  free  under  the  eco 
nomic  regime,  was  an  outcast.  Prejudice  based  on  color 
rather  than  on  condition  made  him  an  object  of  opprobrium 
The  Negro  in  the  nineteenth  century,  in  contradistinction 
an  outcast.  to  hjs  condition  a  hundred  years  earlier.  In 
the  seventeenth  century  there  followed  miscegenation  of  the 
races.  In  the  eighteenth  century  free  Negroes  still  ex 
perienced  some  interbreeding  and  moved  with  the  whites 
socially  in  certain  parts.  In  the  nineteenth  century  all  social 
relations  between  the  whites  and  the  free  Negroes  be 
came  about  the  same  as  those  of  the  former  with  the 
slaves. 

No  laws  prevented  the  intermarriage  of  the  free  Negroes 


The  Free  Negro  133 

and  Indians.  Squaws  accepted  Negroes  for  husbands,  and 
Indian  men  commonly  had  black  wives.  Extensive  mis 
cegenation  of  these  stocks  was  experienced  in  interbreeding 
most  States  in  the  South.  As  these  two  races  with  the 
were  in  common  undesirables  among  the  n  ans* 
whites,  the  one  early  manifested  sympathy  for  the  other, 
as  was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  in  the  massacre  of  1622 
in  Virginia  not  an  African  was  killed.  In  the  raids  of 
the  Indians  on  the  settlers  of  Louisiana,  Negroes  often  acted 
in  concert  with  them.  Efforts  had  to  be  made  to  separate 
the  Negroes  from  the  Indians,  when  the  former  eagerly  re 
sorted  to  their  reservations  as  places  of  refuge.  In  some 
cases  the  Negroes  on  these  estates  survived  the  Indians, 
who  became  extinct. 

Out  of  these  unions  came  a  class  of  Negroes  commonly 
known  as  the  mustees,  or  mestizos,  and  it  became  necessary 
for  laws  and  legal  documents  citing  persons  of  color  to 
give  in  detail  all  of  these  various  designations.  Mustees  and 
No  distinction  was  later  made  between  them  mestizos, 
and  other  persons  of  color,  however,  and  they  passed  as  a 
part  of  the  free  Negro  population.  Evidences  of  their 
presence  in  Virginia  appeared  at  an  early  date.  In  1734 
John  Dingie,  an  Indian  of  King  William  County,  married 
Anne  Littlepage,  a  mulatto  daughter  of  the  wealthy  Ed 
mund  Littlepage.  He  himself  was  occupied  as  a  sailor,  and 
his  wife,  a  free  woman,  was  the  heir  of  considerable  wealth. 

Free  Negroes  mingled  more  with  the  slaves,  however, 
than  with  any  other  class.     This  was  not  the  condition  in 
the  beginning,  but  in  the  course  of  time,  when  the  free 
Negroes  dwindled  in  number  and  their  chances  Reiati0ns  Of 
for  education  and  the  accumulation  of  wealth   free  Negroes 
grew  less,  the  social  distinctions  between  them  and  slaves- 
and  the  slaves  diminished  and  they  associated  with  and 
married  among  them.     This  became  common  in  the  nine- 


134  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

teenth  century.  In  fact,  when  the  question  of  employment 
became  serious,  it  was  often  advantageous  for  a  free  Negro 
to  marry  a  slave  wife.  This  attachment  too  often  prevented 
a  free  Negro  from  being  expelled  from  the  State  by  the 
hostile  laws  when  he  had  this  all  but  permanent  connection 
with  the  community.  A  master  would  not  force  him  to 
leave  for  fear  that  he  might  induce  his  family  to  escape. 
Some  slaves  disliked  free  Negroes  because  conditions  had 
made  the  former  apparently  the  inferiors  of  the  latter. 

The  accomplishment  of  this  task  of  reducing  the  free 
people  of  color  almost  to  the  status  of  the  slaves,  however, 
was  not  easy.  In  the  first  place,  so  many  persons  of  color 
Exceptions  to  had  risen  to  positions  of  usefulness  among 
the  rule.  progressive  people  and  had  formed  connec 

tions  with  them  that  an  abrupt  separation  was  both  inex 
pedient  and  undesirable.  Exceptions  to  the  hard  and  fast 
rules  of  caste  were  often  made  to  relieve  the  people  of  color. 
The  miscegenation  of  the  races  in  the  South  and  especially 
in  large  cities  like  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  moreover, 
had  gone  to  the  extent  that  from  these  centers  eventually 
went,  as  they  do  now,  a  large  number  of  quadroons  and 
octoroons,  who  elsewhere  crossed  over  to  the  white  race. 
As  the  status  of  the  Negroes  remained  fixed,  however,  while 
that  of  the  poor  whites  changed,  the  close  relations  for 
merly  existing  between  these  classes  gradually  ceased. 

The  free  Negro  was  in  many  respects  a  disturbing  factor 
in  the  economic  system.  White  laborers  did  not  care  to 
compete  with  them.  The  free  Negro  usually  won  in  the 
A  disturbing  contest,  for  the  reason  that  his  standard  of  liv- 
factor.  jng  was  iower  and  he  could  work  for  less. 

Moreover,  being  almost  defenseless  before  a  hostile  public, 
he  could  be  more  easily  cheated  and  was,  therefore,  to  be 
preferred.  According  to  testimony,  however,  they  were 
of  economic  worth.  Yet  others  called  them  idlers,  criminals, 
vicious  vagabonds,  a  vile  excrescence  and  the  like.  These 


The  Free  Negro 


135 


opinions  may  not  be  taken  seriously  when  there  are  so  many 
others  to  the  contrary. 

In  the  North  the  Negroes  were  likewise  socially  and,  in  ad 
dition  to  this,  economically  proscribed.     Yet     Successful 
they  usually  succeeded  in  permanently  estab-     Negroes, 
lishing   themselves    wherever   they   had    an    opportunity.2 


n 

rit 

lU 


NEW  YORK  AFRICAX  FREE  SCHOOL,  No.  2,  built  a  century  a^o 

Joseph  C.  Cassey  and  William  Platt  became  enterprising- 
lumber  merchants  in  Western  New  York ;  Henry  Topp  came 
forward  as  a  leading  merchant  tailor  in  Albany,  and  Henry 
Scott  of  New  York  City  founded  and  promoted  for  a  num- 

2  For  other  instances  of  free  Negroes  making  economic  progress,  see 
William  Wells  Brown's  The  Black  Man,  M.  R.  DeLany's  The  Con 
dition  of  the  Colored  People  of  the  United  States,  Alexander  Mott'8 
Biographical  Sketches,  W.  J.  Simmons's  Men  of  Mark,  C.  G.  Wood- 
son's  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  and  The.  .Journal  of  Negro 
History,,  under  the  caption  Undistinguished  Xcgroes, 


136  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

her  of  years  one  of  the  most  successful  pickling  establish 
ments  in  that  metropolis,  while  along  with  him  arose 
Thomas  Downing,  a  caterer,  and  Edward  V.  Clark,  a  pros 
perous  jeweler.  Other  Negroes  were  building  churches,  es 
tablishing  schools,  and  editing  newspapers  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  people  of  color. 

In  Pennsylvania,  where  Negroes  were  found  in  large 
numbers,  more  evidences  of  progress  were  noted.  The  Ne 
groes  of  Philadelphia  had  taxable  property  to  the  amount 
THHiUm^'nf  of  $"350.000'  in  1832T  S359.626  worth  in  1837. 
progress.  and  $400,000  worth  in  1847.  They  had  estab 

lished  before  emancipation  more  than  a  score  of  churches 
with  which  were  connected  more  than  a  hundred  benevolent 
societies  and  a  number  of  schools.  Five  hundred  of  these 
Negroes  were  mechanics,  and  a  considerable  number  ranked 
as  business  men.  Among  the  latter  were  James  Forten,  a 
sail  manufacturer,  Joseph  Casey,  a  broker,  and  Stephen 
Smith,  a  lumber  merchant.  William  Goodrich  of  York  was 
investing  in  railroad  stock.  Benjamin  Richards  of  Pitts- 
burg  was  accumulating  wealth  in  the  butchering  business, 
and  Henry  M.  Collins  of  the  same  city  was  developing  a  real 
estate  enterprise  of  considerable  proportions. 


The  Free  Negro 


A   NEGRO  NEWSPAPER  EDITED  A  CENTURY  AGO 


CHAPTER  IX 

BLAZING  THE  WAY 

THE  free  Negroes,  moreover,  exhibited  not  only  the  power 
to  take  care  of  themselves  in  old  communities,  but  blazed 
the  way  for  progress  of  the  race  in  new  commonwealths  and 
in  all  but  forbidden  fields.  In  the  Northwest  Territory, 
where  many  free  Negroes  from  the  South  were  colonized, 
their  achievements  were  no  less  significant.  Luke  Mulber 
came  to  Steubenville,  Ohio,  in  1802,  hired  himself  out  to  a 
carpenter  for  ten  dollars  a  month  during  the  summer  and 
Instances  of  went  to  school  in  the  winter.  At  the  expiration 
success.  Of  three  years  he  could  do  rough  carpentry 

work  and  had  about  mastered  the  fundamentals  of  educa 
tion.  With  this  as  a  foundation  he  rose  to  a  position  of 
usefulness  among  the  people  of  his  town.  Becoming  a  con 
tractor,  he  hired  four  journeymen  and  did  such  creditable 
work  that  he  was  often  called  upon  to  do  more  than  he 
could.  David  Jenkins,  of  Columbus,  Ohio,  was  then  a 
wealthy  planter,  glazier,  and  paper  hanger.  One  Hill  of 
Chillicothe  was  its  leading  tanner  and  currier. 

In  Cincinnati,  where,  as  a  group,  the  Negroes  had  their 
best  opportunity,  many  made  rapid  strides  forward.  By 
1840  the  Negroes  of  this  city  had  acquired  $228,000  of  real 
estate.  One  Negro  was  worth  $6,000 ;  another,  who  had  pur- 
Achievements  chased  himself  and  family  for  $5,000  a  few 
in  Cincinnati.  years  prj0r  to  1840,  was  worth  $1,000.  An 
other  Negro  paid  $5,000  for  himself  and  family  and  bought 
a  home  worth  $800  to  $1,000.  A  freedman  who  was  a  slave 
until  he  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  then  had  two  lots 

138 


Blazing  the  Way 


139 


worth  $10,000,  paid  a  tax  of  $40,  and  had  320  acres  of  land 
in  Mercer  County,  Ohio.  His  estate  altogether  was  worth 
about  $12,000  or  $15,000.  A  woman  who  was  a  slave  until 
she  was  thirty  then  had  property  worth  $2,000.  She  had 
also  come  into  potential  possession  of  two  houses,  on  which 
a  white  lawyer  had  given  her  a  mortgage  to  secure  the 
payment  of  $2,000  borrowed  from  this  thrifty  woman.  An 
other  Negro,  who  was  on  the  auction  block  in  1832,  had 


jfi 


A  SECONDARY  SCHOOL  IN  MEKCER  COUNTY,  OHIO,  admitting 
Negroes  in  1842 

spent  $2,600  purchasing  himself  and  family  and  had  bought 
two  brick  houses,  valued  at  $6,000,  and  560  acres  of  land, 
said  to  be  worth  $2,500,  in  Mercer  County,  Ohio. 

Out  of  this  group  in  Cincinnati  came  some  very  useful 
Negroes,  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Robert  Harlan, 
the  horseman;  A.  V.  Thompson,  the  tailor;  J.  Presley  and 
Thomas  Ball,  contractors ;  and  Samuel  T.  Wil-  Statistics, 
cox,  the  merchant,  who  was  worth  $60,000  in  1859.  There 
were  among  them  two  other  successful  Negroes,  Henry 
Royd  and  Robert  Gordon.  Boyd  was  a  Kentucky  freedman 


140  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

who  helped  to  overcome  the  prejudice  in  Cincinnati  against 
Negro  mechanics  by  inventing  and  exploiting  a  corded  bed, 
the  demand  for  which  was  extensive  throughout  the  Ohio 
and  Mississippi  Valleys.  He  had  a  creditable  manufac 
turing  business  in  which  he  employed  twenty-five  men. 

Eobert  Gordon,  the  other  Negro  there,  was  doubtless  a 
more  interesting  character.  He  was  born  the  slave  of  a 
rich  yachtsman  in  Richmond,  Virginia.  His  master  placed 
A  shrewd  him  in  charge  of  a  coal  yard,  which  he  handled 
business  man.  so  faithfully  that  his  owner  gave  him  all  of 
the  slack  resulting  from  the  handling  of  the  coal.  This  he 
sold  to  the  local  manufacturers,  accumulating  thereby  in 
the  course  of  time  thousands  of  dollars.  He  purchased  him 
self  in  1846  and  after  inspecting  several  Negro  settlements 
in  the  North  went  into  the  coal  business  in  Cincinnati. 
Having  then  about  $15,000,  Gordon  made  much  morfc 
progress  in  this  coveted  enterprise  than  his  competitors  de 
sired.  They  thereupon  reduced  the  price  of  coal  so  as  to 
make  it  unprofitable  for  Gordon  to  continue  in  the  business. 
He  was  shrewd  enough  to  fill  all  of  his  orders  at  the  white 
coal  yards  by  making  his  purchases  through  mulattoes  who 
could  pass  for  white.  Soon  there  followed  a  general  freez 
ing  on  the  Ohio  River,  making  it  impossible  to  bring  coal 
down  the  river.  Gordon  then  sold  out  his  supply  at  ad 
vanced  prices,  so  increasing  his  wealth  that  he  was  later 
in  a  position  to  invest  extensively  in  United  States  bonds 
during  the  Civil  War  and  afterward  in  real  estate  on 
Walnut  Hills  in  Cincinnati. 

This  economic  progress  would  have  been  greater,  had  it 
not  been  for  race  riots  in  communities  in  which  free  Ne 
groes  lived.  On  January  1,  1830,  a  mob  drove  eighty  Ne 
groes  from  Portsmouth,  Ohio ;  1,200  Negroes  left  Cincinnati 
Riots.  for  Canada  as  a  result  of  the  riot  of  1829,  and 

others  lost  life  and  property  in  the  riots  of  1836  and  1841. 
The  disastrous  effects  of  this  unsettled  state  were  further  ag- 


Blazing  the  Way  141 

gravated  by  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850.  Many  fugi 
tives  and  their  relatives  residing  in  the  free  States  moved 
immediately  into  Canada  after  the  proclamation  of  this 
measure  as  the  law  of  the  land.  Within  thirty-six  hours 
thereafter  forty  Negroes  left  Massachusetts  for  Canada.  The 
Negro  population  of  Columbia,  Pennsylvania,  decreased 
from  943  to  437.  A  Negro  settlement  at  Sandy  The  Fugitive 
Lake  in  the  northwestern  part  of  that  State  was  Slave  Law- 
broken  up  altogether.  Every  member  of  a  Negro  Methodist 
Church,  eighty-two  in  number,  including  the  pastor,  fled 
from  a  town  in  New  York  to  Canada.  The  Negro  churches 
of  Buffalo  lost  many  communicants.  One  in  Rochester  lost 
one  hundred  and  twelve,  including  the  pastor,  and  another 
in  Detroit  eighty-four.  Some  Negroes  stood  their  ground 
and  gave  battle,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Christiana  tragedy  in 
Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  where  Edward  Gorsuch 
was  killed  and  his  son  wounded  by  free  Negroes  whom 
he  wanted  to  enslave. 

Those  Negroes  who  dared  to  remain  in  the  free  States 
to  defy  the  slave  catchers  were  not  thereafter  in  a  frame  of 
mind  to  promote  their  economic  welfare,  so  great  was  the 
demand  on  their  time  for  maintaining  their    personai 
freedom.    In  fact,  the  main  concern  of  many     freedom 
leaders   among   the   free   Negroes   and   their 
sympathizers    was    aiding    fugitives    to    reach    free    soil. 
William  Craft,   escaping  from  Macon,   Georgia,  with  his 
handsome  quadroon  wife  who  effected  their  escape  by  posing 
as  his  owner,  caused  unusual  excitement  in  the  North  until 
this  heroic  dash  for  freedom  ended  with  their  flight  to 
England.    Then  followed  the  arrest  of  Daniel  as  a  fugitive 
in  Buffalo,  where  the  federal  commissioner  re-    Seeking 
manded  him   to  his   claimant.     Hamlet  was     fugitives, 
captured  by  his  pursuers  in  New  York  City  while   the 
arrest  of  Jerry  in  Syracuse  was  stirring  the  whites  and 
blacks   throughout   the   North.      Shadrach,    claimed   as    a 


142 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


slave  in  Boston,  was  imprisoned  but  almost  miraculously 
spirited  away  to  Canada,  Thomas  Simms,  arrested  later, 
however,  was  returned  to  slavery  to  please  those  who  feared 
the  southern  threats  of  secession  if  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
was  not  enforced,  and  to  satisfy  Boston  business  men  who 

did  not  care  to  lose  their 
trade  with  the  South. 
Then  for  a  similar  reason 
came  the  return  of  An 
thony  Burns,  a  Baptist 
clergyman,  arrested  at  the 
instance  of  Charles  F.  Sut- 
tle  of  Virginia,  while  two 
hundred  special  policemen 
had  to  be  sworn  in  to  re 
strain  citizens  who  consid 
ered  the  law  an  infringe 
ment  upon  personal  liberty. 
The  Dred  Scot  decision, 
denying  that  the  Negroes 
were  citizens  and  making 
slavery  national  and  free 
dom  sectional,  was  the  cli- 


ELLEN  GRAFT,  a  fugitive  disguised 
as  her  master 


max  of  these  invasions  of 
human  rights. 

Thousands  of  fugitives, 
however,  were  never  apprehended.  They  were  gener 
ally  well  directed  through  the  free  States  by  the  agents 
of  the  Underground  Railroad  conducted  by  Quakers  and 
militant  abolitionists.  This  was  not  any 
well-known  route  controlled  by  a  well  or 
ganized  body.  It  was  rather  a  number  of 
Christian  people  scattered  throughout  the  free  States  but 
united  with  their  common  purpose  to  promote  the  escape  of 
slaves  by  clandestine  methods  in  defiance  of  the  mediaeval 


The 

Underground 

Railroad. 


lihiziug  the   Way 


143 


laws  of  the  United  States.  There  were  near  the  border  im 
portant  stations  which  were  always  furnishing  much  excite 
ment  in  the  pursuit  and  capture,  as  related  by  William  Still, 
in  charge  at  Philadelphia,  Levi  Coffin,  the  station  master 
at  Cincinnati,  and  William  Whipper,  the  moving  spirit  at 
Columbia,  Pennsylvania. 

Effective   work  was  done   in   the   Northwest   Territory. 

Through  this  section  extended 
numerous  routes  from  Ken 
tucky  and  Tennessee  to  Canada. 
Josiah  Henson  and  Harriett  Tub- 
man  used  these  routes  in  con 
ducting  fugitives  to  Harriett 
freedom.  The  ca-  Tirtman. 
reer  of  the  latter  in  this  haz 
ardous  enterprise  was  unusually 
romantic.  Born  a  slave  in  Mary 
land  but  endowed  with  too  much 
love  of  freedom  not  to  break  the 
chains  which  held  her,  she  be 
came  in  the  North  the  most  ven 
turesome  worker  in  the  employ 
of  the  Underground  Railroad.  When  her  coworkers  had 
much  fear  as  to  her  safety,  she  dared  to  go  even  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  South.  Once  she  returned  to  her  old  home 
in  Maryland,  where  she  met  her  master  along  the  road  but 
easily  contrived  to  prevent  him  from  recognizing  her.  She 
did  so  much  to  aid  the  escape  of  fugitives  and  to  rescue 
freedmen  from  slave  hunters  that  the  aggrieved  owners 
offered  for  her  capture  a  reward  of  $40,000.  For  these 
unusual  exploits  she  became  known  as  the  ''Moses"  of  her 
people. 

After  the  first  excitement  caused  by  the  execution  of  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  conditions  became  a  little  more  favor 
able  for  the  Negroes  in  the  North.  Forcing  upon  the  coun- 


WILLIAM   STILL,   an   agent 

of   the  Underground 

Railroad 


144 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


try  a  radical  proslavery  policy  which  men  formerly  in 
different  as  to  the  issue  could  hot  accept,  the  southern  lead 
ers  made  friends  for  the  Negroes  in  the  North.  The  effort 
to  impress  the  North  into  the  service  of  recapturing  fugi 
tive  blacks,  tended  to  raise  up  champions  of  individual 
liberty.  The  North  had  enacted  personal  liberty  laws  to 

counteract  this  slave-hunt 
ing,  but  these  had  failed. 
Sympathetic  whites  could 
not  then  go  into  the  heart 
of  the  South  to  aid  the 
blacks,  but  in  the  border 
States,  and  especially  in 
cities  like  Baltimore  and 
Washington,  much  was 
done  for  the  improvement 
of  Negroes  through  the 
many  churches  and  schools 
established  for  their  spe 
cial  benefit.  Among  many 
other  workers  promoting 
this  cause  was  Myrtilla 
Miner,  for  years  a  teacher 
of  girls  of  color  in  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia  and  the 
founder  of  the  first  girls'  school  of  methods  in  "Wash 
ington. 

In  spite  of  all  of  their  difficulties  some  of  the  northern 
free  Negroes  attained  national  prominence.1  Among  those 
to  appear  after  the  reaction  was  John  B.  Russwurm,  the 
first  Negro  college  graduate,  a  classmate  of  John  P.  Hale 
at  Bowdoin  in  1826.  Kusswurm  later  went  to  Liberia  and 

i  These  persons  of  color  are  given  more  honorable  mention  in 
Simmons's  Men  of  Mark,  in  William  Wells  Brown's  The  Black  Man, 
and  in  his  Rising  Son. 


MYRTILLA  MINEB 


Blazing  the  Way 


145 


served  as  governor.     Dr.  James  McCune  Smith,  a  distin 
guished  graduate  in  medicine  of  the  "Omversity  of  Glasgow 
and  for  years  a  practitioner  in  the  city  of  New  York,  was 
better  educated  than  Russwurm.     Dr.  Smith      Prominent 
was  a  mixed  breed  of  about  equal  proportion      Negroes, 
of  Caucasian  and  African  blood.    In  statue  he  was  somewhat 
thick   and  corpulent.     He 
had    a   fine   head   with    a 
broad     and     lofty     brow, 
round,      full      face,      firm 
mouth,  and  dazzling  eyes. 
As  an  educated  man  given 
to  writing,   he   was  easily 
drawn  into  the  discussion 
on  the  race  question,  which 
his  knowledge   of  history, 
science,  and  literature  en 
abled    him    to    treat   in    a 
scholarly  way.    He  was  also 
an    eloquent   speaker    who 
always  made  himself  clear 
and  talked  to  the  point. 

In  the  field  of  writers 
there  stood  two  other  men 
as  the  first  actual  historians  produced  by  the  race.  These 
were  William  C.  Nell  and  William  Wells  Brown.  There 
was  then  so  much  talk  about  the  Negroes  that  William  C. 
men  wanted  to  know  more  about  the  achieve-  NeU« 
ments  of  the  race.  These  writers  supplied  this  need.  Nell 
was  a  native  of  Boston,  a  man  of  medium  height,  slim,  gen 
teel  figure,  quick  step,  elastic  movements,  a  thoughtful  yet 
pleasant  brow,  and  thin  face.  Chaste  in  his  conversation  and 
devoted  to  literature,  he  passed  as  a  man  of  learning  with 
the  reputation  of  being  a  person  of  unimpeachable  character. 
Nell  wrote  a  book,  entitled  Colored  Patriots  of  the  American 


DR.  JAMES  McCuNE  SMITH 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


FREE  NEGROES  IN  THE  CRISIS 

CHARLES  L.  REASON  WILLIAM  WHIPPER 

PHILLIP  A.  BELL  CHARLES  B.  KAY 


Blazing  the  Way 


147 


Revolution,   a  volume   containing  numerous   facts  of   the 
history  of  the  race.     lie  wrote  other  books  of  less  impor 
tance  and  collected  data  which  made  him  the  best  informed 
man  in  this  field  during  his  time. 
William   Wells   Brown,   the   other   writer,   was  born   in 

Lexington, 

1816.     His 

slave     and 

slaveholder. 


HI 


Kentucky, 
mother   was   a 
his     father     a 
Serving     in 

St.  Louis  in  an  office  of 
Elijah  P.  Love  joy  before 
the  editor  was  forced  to  go 
to  Alton,  Brown  received 
his  inspiration  and  start  in 
education.  He  escaped 
North,  where  William 
he  took  an  WeUs  Brown, 
active  part  in  the  work 
of  the  Underground  Rail 
road.  From  1843  to  1849 
he  served  as  a  lecturer  of 
the  American  Antislav- 
ery  Society.  He  then  vis 
ited  England  and  France, 
where  he  came  into  contact 

with  such  lovers  of  freedom,  as  James  Houghton,  Richard 
Cobden,  Victor  Hugo,  and  M.  De  Tocqueville,  as  set  forth  in 
his  Three  Years  in  Europe.  Brown  then  published  Clotelle; 
or  the  President's  Daughter,  a  narrative  of  slave  life  in  the 
Southern  States.  He  studied  medicine  during  these  years, 
but  never  practiced  much,  as  he  was  busily  engaged  in  ad 
vancing  the  cause  of  freedom.  He  was  a  regular  contributor 
to  the  London  Daily  News,  The  Liberator,  Frederick  Doug 
lass's  Paper,  and  The  National  Anti-Slavery  Standard.  In 
1854  Brown  published  Sketches  of  Places  and  People 


WILLIAM  WELLS  BROWN 


148 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Abroad.  His  claims  as  an  historian,  however,  are  based  on 
The  Black  Man,  which  appeared  in  1863,  The  Negro  in  the 
Rebellion,  published  in  1866,  and  The  Rising  Son,  brought 
out  in  1882.  Up  to  that  date  he  had  done  more  than  any 
other  writer  to  popularize  Negro  history. 

There  were  at  this  time  before  the  American  public  a 
number  of  other  prominent  Negroes  ministering  to  other 
needs  wherever  necessary.  There  appeared  Ira  Aldridge, 
the  successful  Shakespearean  actor;  Edmonia  Lewis,  the 

sculptor;  Edwin  M.  Bannister 
and  William  H.  Simpson,  paint 
ers  'of  promise;  Phillip  A.  Bell 
and  Samuel  E.  Cornish,  talented 
editors  of  the  Colored  American; 
James  M.  Whitfield  and  Frances 
E.  W.  Harper,  writers  of  popular 
verse;  Charles  L.  Reason,  the 
educator  called  in  1849  to  the 
chair  of  Mathematics  and  Belles 
Lettres  of  New  York  Central  Col 
lege;  and  George  B.  Vashon,  a 
graduate  of  Oberlin,  admitted  to 

the  bar  in  1847,  but  rather  devoted  to  education  at  New 
York  Central  College,  where  he  distinguished  himself  in 
teaching  the  classics. 

Some  of  the  useful  preachers  were  William  P.  Quinn, 
Alexander  W.  Wayman,  Jabez  Campbell,  Daniel  A.  Payne, 
Peter  Williams,  William  Douglas,  Charles  B.  Ray,  John  F. 
Prominent  Cook,  Alexander  Crummell,  and  Henry  High- 
ministers.  ian(j  Garnett.  Most  of  these  clergymen,  like 
the  two  last  mentioned,  rendered  important  service  in  higher 
positions  after  the  Civil  War.  Alexander  Crummell,  a 
man  of  unadulterated  blood,  attracted  unusual  attention 
by  happily  combining  with  his  commanding  appearance 
and  fluent  speech  a  liberal  education  in  the  classics  and 


ALEXANDER  CRUMMELL 


Blazing  the  Way 


149 


theology  obtained  at  Cambridge  University,  England.  He 
made  an  impression  by  delivering  in  England  in  1848  an 
address  on  the  life  and  character  of  Thomas  Clarkson. 
Crummell  emigrated  to  Africa  in  1852,  but  returned  to  this 
country  in  1873. 

One  of  the  Negro  students,  because  of  whom  the  Canaan 
Academy  in  New  Hampshire  was  closed,  was  Henry  High 
land  Garnett,  the  son  of.  a 
kidnapped  African  chief. 
He  then  sought  education 
at  the  Oneida  Institute 
under  Beriah  Green.  He 
became  a  popular  Presby- 
terian  preacher  and  lec- 
turer,  but  did  not  come 
into  his  own  Henry  High- 
as  a  leader  land  Garnett. 
until  he  delivered  to  the 
Convention  of  Colored 
Americans  at  Buffalo,  in 
1843,  his  famous  address 
on  the  Negro.  Recog- 
nized  widely  thereafter  as 
a  man  of  influence  on  the  platform,  he  went  in  1850  to 
carry  his  message  to  England,  from  which  he  proceeded  to 
Jamaica  to  serve  as  a  missionary.  He  served  as  a  Presby 
terian  minister  in  Washington  and  New  York  City,  and 
for  a  few  years  was  the  President  of  Avery  College. 

In  these  ranks  unselfishly  toiled  David  Ruggles,  J.  W.  C. 
Pennington,  Samuel  R.  Ward,  and  Josiah  Henson.     Rug 
gles  was   a  man  of  African  blood,   medium  size,   gentle 
address  and  polite  language.     He  resided  in      David 
the  city  of  New  York  where  he  became  an      Buggies, 
eternal  enemy  of  slaveholders,  bringing  to  that  city  ser 
vants,  whose  escape  to  freedom  Ruggles  often  effected  by 


HENRY  HIGHLAND  GABNETT 


150 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


means  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  Deeply  interested  in 
moral,  social  and  political  progress  of  the  free  Negro  in 
the  North,  Ruggles  published  for  several  years  The  Mirror 
of  Liberty,  a  quarterly  magazine  advocating  the  rights  of 
the  Negroes.  In  this  work  he  exhibited  unusual  wit  and 
logic  in  hurling  blows  at  his  opponents,  as  is  well  evidenced 
by  his  pamphlet,  entitled  David  M.  Eees,  M.D.,  Used  Up. 
In  this  Ruggles  exposed  the 
fallacy  of  the  ardent  colon- 
izationists  who  had  advo 
cated  the  expatriation  of 
.the  Negroes. 

J.  W.  C.  Pennington  was 
J.  W.  0.  born  a  slave 
Pennington.  jn  Maryland. 
He  was  a  man  of  common 
size,  of  unadulterated  blood 
and  of  strongly  marked 
African  features,  slightly 
inclined  to  corpulency,  with 
an  athletic  frame  and  a 
good  constitution.  He  had 
no  opportunities  for  early 
education,  but  after  his  re 
lease  from  bondage  he  so 
applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  the  languages, 

history,  literature  and  theology  that  he  became  a  proficient 
preacher  in  the  Presbyterian  denomination.  He  served  as 
pastor  of  a  church  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  where  he  won 
distinction  as  a  preacher  and  a  lecturer.  He  then  made 
several  trips  to  Europe  to  attend  Congresses  at  Paris,  Brus 
sels  and  London.  On  these  occasions  he  was  invited  to 
preach  and  speak  before  some  of  the  most  refined  and  aris 
tocratic  audiences  of  Europe.  In  recognition  of  his  scholar- 


J.  W.  C.  PENNINGTON 


Blazing  the  Way 


151 


ship,  the  University  of  Heidelberg  conferred  upon  him  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 

Samuel  R.  Ward,  thanks  to  aid  received  from  Gerrit 
Smith,  obtained  a  liberal  education  in  the  classics  and  in 
theology.  For  several  years  he  acceptably  served  a  white 
congregation  of  the  Presbyterian  denomination  at  Soutli 

Butler,  New  York.  He 
was  a  black  man,  standing 
above  six  feet  in  height, 
distinguished  by  a  strong 
voice,  and  energetic  ges 
tures.  He  shared  with 
Fred  Douglass  the  honor 
of  being  one  Samuel  E. 
of  the  most  Ward- 
popular  orators  of  his  day. 
He  directed  his  appeal  to 
the  understanding  rather 
than  to  the  imagination ; 
but,  says  a  contemporary, 
"So  forcibly  did  they 
take  possession  of  it  that 
the  heart  yielded. ' '  Ideas 
formed  the  basis  of  his 
method.  His  greater 
strength  lay  in  knowing  that  words  and  ideas  are  not 
inseparable.  He  never  endeavored  to  be  ornamental,  al 
though  he  was  not  inelegant.  He  was  concise  without 
being  abrupt,  clear  and  forcible  without  using  extraordi 
nary  stress.  Thus  equipped  for  the  deliverance  of  his  great 
message,  he  preached  or  lectured  in  all  the  churches,  halls 
and  school  houses  in  Western  and  Central  New  York.  His 
work  extended  to  other  parts  of  the  North  and  to  Jamaica 
and  England. 
Josiah  Heiison  had  neither  the  intellect  nor  the  natural 


SAMUEL  R.  WARD 


152 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


gifts  of  some  of  these  men,  but  served  as  an  example  of  the 
capability  of  the  Negro.  His  experiences  in  slavery  were 
Josiah  Henson.  so  strange  and  peculiarly  romantic  that  on 
hearing  his  story  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  reconstructed 
and  embellished  it  so  as  to  form  the  famous  narrative  known 
as  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  That  he  was  the  original  Uncle 

a    Tom,    however,    has    been 

disputed.  Josiah  Henson 
settled  in  Canada  and 
then  rendered  service  in 
promoting  the  escape  of 
118  Kentucky  slaves  by 
means  of  the  Underground 
Railroad  through  Ohio  and 
Indiana.  He  thereafter 
devoted  himself  to  preach 
ing  and  education  among 
his  people,  serving  with 
Hiram  Wilson  as  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  Brit 
ish-American  Manual  La 
bor  Institute.  He  engaged 
also  in  business  in  Canada, 
lectured  throughout  the 
North  in  behalf  of  the 

emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  finally  visited  England, 
where  he  was  received  by  some  of  the  leading  men  of  that 
country  and  by  Queen  Victoria. 


HARRIETT  BEECHER  STOWE 


CHAPTER  X 

COLONIZATION 

IN  the  proportion  that  slavery  became  an  exploitation 
effort  merely  for  the  enrichment  of  the  whites,  the  free 
Negroes  who  lived  in  the  South  became  more  and  more 
undesirable  in  the  eyes  of  the  planters  who  had  reduced 
the  majority  of  slaves  to  the  plane  of  beasts  The  Cause, 
of  burden.1  Debased  also  to  a  lower  status,  the  free  Ne 
groes  naturally  thought  of  making  an  effort  to  extri 
cate  themselves  from  these  untoward  circumstances,  remem 
bering  always  their  former  state  when  slavery  was  of  a 
patriarchal  order.  During  the  first  two  or  three  decades 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  therefore,  they  gradually  found 
their  way  to  the  North,  first  by  the  aid  of  masters  philan- 
thropically  inclined,  especially  the  Quakers,  who,  seeing 
that  their  manumitted  slaves  had  little  chance  for  elevation 
in  the  midst  of  a  slave  society,  sold  out  their  holdings  in 
the  South  and  moved  to  the  Northwest  Territory  where  they 
undertook  to  establish  them  as  freemen. 

Another  stage  in  the  transplantation  of  the  free  Negroes 
was  reached  when  because  of  their  being  apparently  a  men 
ace  to  slavery  the  free  Negroes  were  by  legislation  and  pub- 

1  The  story  of  colonization  is  given  in  documentary  form  in  The 
African  Repository,  the  official  organ  of  the  American  Colonization 
Society.  The  attack  on  colonization  is  presented  in  William  Jay's 
An  Inquiry  Into  the  Character  and  Tendency  of  the  American  Colo 
nization  Society.  See  also  J.  H.  B.  Latrobe's  Liberia;  Its  Origin, 
Rise,  Progress  and  Results;  John  H.  T.  McPherson's  History  of 
Liberia;  Frederick  Starr's  Liberia;  Description,  History,  Problems; 
C.  G.  Woodson's  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  Chapter  IV;  and  The 
Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  276-301,  318-338;  II,  209-228. 

153 


154  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

lie  opinion  driven  out  of  the  South  immediately  or  within 
a  specified  time.  This  forced  into  the  North  such  a  large 
number  of  free  Negroes  that  there  arose  a  strong  protest 
from  various  communities,  and  some  of  them  agitated  pro 
hibiting  the  immigration  of  Negroes  into  their  common 
wealths.  Negroes  were  then  coming  into  the  North  in  larger 
numbers  than  could  be  easily  absorbed,  and  coming,  too,  at 
the  time  when  thousands  of  foreigners  were  immigrating 
into  this  country,  they  caused  an  intense  race  prejudice  to 
develop  against  their  group.  From  these  two  forces — that 
is,  the  effort  to  drive  the  Negroes  from  the  South  and  the 
attempt  to  turn  them  away  from  the  North — came  a  great 
impulse  to  the  movement  to  colonize  Negroes  abroad.  The 
condition  of  the  free  Negroes  was  such  that  it  would  seem 
that  they  should  have  been  willing  to  go.  They  were  pro 
scribed  by  employers  who  preferred  whites;  they  were 
denied  consideration  in  the  courts  when  they  appealed  to 
them  for  being  imposed  upon  by  ill-designing  persons ;  and 
they  were  subject  to  the  attacks  of  mobs  spurred  on  to 
action  by  almost  any  petty  offense  committed  by  one  of  the 
free  population  of  color. 

The  idea  of  colonization  was  not  then  new.  From  the 
very  beginning  of  the  antislavery  movement  there  was  an 
effort  to  provide  for  restoring  the  Africans  to  their  native 
land.  Such  a  scheme  was  developed  by  the  Quakers  under 
the  inspiration  of  George  Keith  as  early  as  1713  and  was 
forever  thereafter  kept  before  the  people  throughout  Amer 
ica.  In  the  beginning  this  idea  was  that  of  those  persons 
sympathizing  with  the  Negroes  and  desiring  to  ameliorate 
their  condition  by  emancipation,  but  who  were  unable  to 
think  of  incorporating  them  into  their  own  society  to  live 
with  the  whites  on  a  plane  of  equality. 

The  scheme  was  further  advanced  by  Fothergill  and  Gran- 
ville  Sharp,  and  was  given  a  new  meaning  by  Anthony 
Benezet,  who,  having  much  confidence  in  the  intellectual 


Colonization  155 

power  of  the  Negroes,  felt  that  they  might  be  colonized 
nearer  to  the  white  people.  His  proposal  was  that  they 
should  be  settled  on  the  western  lands,  which  Promoters  of 
were  ceded  to  the  Congress  of  the  Confeder-  colonization, 
ation.  In  this  he  was  supported  by  a  number  of  noted  men 
of  his  time,  chief  among  whom  were  Thomas  Brannagaii 
and  Thomas  Jefferson.  During  the  Revolution,  however, 
the  manumissions  of  Negroes  had  led  to  the  emancipation 
of  a  sufficiently  large  group  of  intelligent  ones  to  justify 
the  expectation  that  their  liberation  was  not  an  experi 
ment,  should  they  be  prepared  by  education  and  religious 
instruction;  and  the  number  of  Negroes  receiving  their 
freedom  during  this  time  did  not  render  an  urgent  agitation 
for  the  colonization  of  them  abroad  a  necessity. 

During  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
the  first  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  however, 
the  desire  for  the  colonization  of  the  Negroes  abroad  became 
more  widespread.  Many  slaveholders  be-  projects 
lieved  that  the  then  ever-increasing  important  abroad, 
institution  of  slavery  could  be  maintained  only  by  removing 
from  this  country  the  most  striking  argument  for  its  aboli 
tion,  the  free  Negro;  and  the  foreigners  then  crowding 
the  free  blacks  out  of  the  industries  in  the  North  hoped  to 
remove  them  from  the  field  of  competition.  Colonization, 
therefore,  received  a  new  impetus.  The  movement  was  no 
longer  a  means  of  uplift  for  the  Negro  but  rather  a  method 
of  getting  rid  of  an  undesirable  class  that  slavery  might 
be  thoroughly  engrafted  upon  our  country. 

Up  to  this  time,  however,  there  had  not  been  any  unify 
ing  influence  to  give  the  movement  the  support  adequate 
to  its  success.  The  various  advocates  of  the  deportation 
of  the  Negroes  had  done  little  more  than  to  NO  concerted 
express  their  views.  A  few  had  set  forth  action, 
some  very  elaborate  plans  as  to  how  the  machinery  for  the 
transportation  of  the  Negroes  abroad  could  be  easily  worked 


156 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


out.  Replying,  in  1811,  to  Ann  Mifflin,  desiring  an  opinion 
on  the  matter  of  African  colonization,  Thomas  Jefferson  said 
that  he  considered  it  the  most  desirable  measure  which 
could  be  adopted  for  the  gradual  drawing  off  of  the  black 
population.  "Nothing,"  thought  he,  "is  more  to  be  wished 
than  that  the  United  States  should  thus  undertake  to  make 
such  an  establishment  on  the  coast  of  Africa. ' '  Unwilling, 
however,  to  content  himself  with 
this  mere  discussion,  Paul  Cuffe,  a 
New  England  Negro  known  to  the 
high  seas,  transported  and  estab 
lished  thirty-eight  Negroes  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa  in  1815.  This 
was  the  first  actual  effort  at  coloni- 
Paul  Cuffe.  zation  by  Americans, 
and  it  served  as  an  unusual  stimu 
lus  to  the  movement.  Cuffe  recom 
mended,  however,  that  the  region 
around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  be 
selected  for  colonization. 

The  colonization  sentiment  there 
after  continued  to  grow.  In  the 
mountains  of  Tennessee  and  Ken 
tucky,  where  the  infiltration  of  slaves  had  made  it  im 
practicable  for  those  emancipators  in  the  mountains 
to  continue  to  attack  the  institution,  there  developed  a 
number  of  flourishing  colonization  societies  which  stim 
ulated  the  movement.  The  Union  Humane  Society,  an 
In  the  West,  organization  founded  by  Benjamin  Lundy 
of  Tennessee,  had  for  one  of  its  purposes  the  removal  of 
Negroes  beyond  the  pale  of  the  white  man.  The 
same  sentiment  was  expressed  in  Kentucky  in  its  colon 
ization  society  in  1812  and  1815,  when  it  requested  of 
Congress  that  some  territory  be  "laid  off  as  an  asylum  for 
all  those  Negroes  and  mulattoes  who  have  been  and  who 


PAUL  CUFFE,  the  first  actual 
colonizer 


Colonization  157 

may  thereafter  be  emancipated  within  the  United  States, 
and  that  such  donations,  allowances,  encouragements,  and 
assistance  be  afforded  them  as  may  be  necessary  for  carry 
ing  them  thither  and  settling  them  therein,  and  that  they 
be  under  such  regulations  and  government  in  all  respects 
as  your  wisdom  shall  direct."  Encouraged  by  Charles 
Fenton  Mercer,  a  slaveholder  of  colonization  tendencies,  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  which,  in  1800,  had  taken  up  with  the 
President  of  the  United  States  the  question  of  colonizing 
emancipated  slaves  and  free  Negroes,  passed  a  resolution  in 
1816  asking  the  American  Government  to  find  a  place  of 
asylum  on  the  Northern  Pacific  coast  on  which  to  settle 
free  Negroes  and  those  afterwards  emancipated  in  Virginia. 
That  very  day  a  number  of  persons  who  had  for  years 
been  interested  in  this  movement  met  in  Washington  to 
effect  a  permanent  organization.  Among  these  persons  who 
had  fostered  the  cause  of  colonization  was  Organization. 
Robert  Finley,  a  Presbyterian  pastor  who  had  served  as 
president  of  the  University  of  Georgia  and  had  been  in 
touch  with  Paul  Cuffe.  There  appeared,  too,  Samuel  J. 
Mills,  a  missionary  and  a  promoter  of  all  movements  tend 
ing  to  uplift  the  man  far  down,  Hezekiah  Niles,  the  editor 
of  the  famous  Niles  Register,  Elijah  J.  Mills,  a  Congress 
man  of  Massachusetts,  and  Elisha  B.  Caldwell,  clerk  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  Among  the  men  who  at 
tended  the  first  meeting  were  Henry  Clay,  the  compromiser, 
Francis  Scott  Key,  the  author  of  the  Star  Spangled  Ban 
ner,  John  Eandolph,  a  United  States  Senator  from  Vir 
ginia,  Judge  Bushrod  Washington,  a  brother  of  George 
Washington,  and  Charles  March,  Congressman  from  Ver 
mont.  The  first  general  conference  of  the  colonizationists 
held  in  the  home  of  Elisha  B.  Caldwell,  was  devoted  largely 
to  prayer  for  the  success  cf  the  enterprise.  Addresses  were 
made  by  Henry  Clay,  discussing  the  delicacy  of  the  ques 
tion  and  expressing  the  purpose  of  the  meeting  and  the  con- 


158 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


dition  on  which  he  had  attended.  The  principal  address, 
however,  was  delivered  by  Elisha  B.  Caldwell.  Various 
views  were  expressed  to  indicate  that  although  the  members 
from  the  North  had  in  mind  the  interests  of  the  free  Ne 
groes,  those  from  the  South  were  primarily  concerned  with 
getting  rid  of  this  element. 

Bushrod  Washington  was  chosen  president,  and  the  ma 
chinery  was  constructed 
for  the  extension  of  the 
work  of  the  Society  into 
all  States.  In  the  course 
of  time,  therefore,  we  hear 
of  several  States  having 
colonization  societies,  and 
they 

were  organ 
ized  in  ordi 
nary  towns. 
The  purposes  of  these  or 
ganizations  varied  accord 
ing  to  the  personnel  of 
the  management  and  the 
section  of  the  country  in 
which  the  Society  was 
founded.  The  national  or 
ganization  established  The 

African  Repository,  the  organ  of  the  Society,  and  in  that 
way  made  its  declaration  as  to  purpose  to  the  whole 
world.  Masters  were  not  necessarily  urged  to  free  their 
slaves,  but  each  community  was  called  upon  to  take  steps 
1o  provide  for  the  transplantation  to  Africa  of  all  slaves 
who  might  be  liberated  at  the  will  of  the  masters  con 
cerned  or  purchased  for  this  purpose,  as  was  the  case  of 
Lott  Gary,  a  Baptist  preacher,  who,  in  addition  to  ren 
dering  his  denomination  valuable  service  in  Liberia,  served 


in     some     of     them 


Plans  to 

extend 

colonization. 


LOTT  CABY 


Colonization  159 

there  creditably  also  as  a  governor  of  one  of  the  provinces. 
The  well-known  promoter  of  colonization  in  later  years  was 
the  successful  lawyer  and  business  man,  John  H.  B.  Latrobe, 
who,  as  secretary  of  the  Maryland  Colonization  Society  and 
finally  President  of  the  American  Colonization  Society,  did 
more  than  any  other  individual  to  advance  this  cause. 

It  was  finally  decided  to  promote  colonization  in  Africa. 
The  United  States  Government  was  approached,  and  the 
matter  received  the  attention  of  President  Monroe,  who  sub 
mitted  it  to  Congress.  Upon  his  recommendation  it  was 
agreed  to  purchase  in  Africa  certain  territory  lying  near 
the  Senegal  River  on  the  western  coast.  In  making  this 
purchase  accordingly  the  country  was  designated  as  Liberia 
because  it  was  to  be  the  land  of  freedom.  Its  capital  was 
called  Monrovia  in  honor  of  James  Monroe,  the  President 
of  the  United  States  under  whom  it  was  founded. 

The  problem  then  was  to  develop  in  this  country  a  num 
ber  of  intelligent  Negroes  who  might  constitute  a  nucleus 
around  which  a  government  could  be  established.    Here  we 
see  that  the  blacks  were  encouraged  to  develop     preparation 
the  power  to  work  out  their  own  salvation.    It     of  coloniza- 
gave  an  impetus  to  the  movement  for  more 
thorough  education  of  the  Negroes  at  the  very  time  when 
the  South  was  trying  to  restrict  them  in  such  opportunities. 
Those  Negroes  to  be  sent  out  were  to  be  trained  in  the 
manual   arts,   science,   and  literature,   and  in   the   higher 
professions.    John  B.  Russwurm,  an  alumnus  of  Bowdoin, 
the  first  Negro  to  be  graduated  by  a  college  in  the  United 
States,  went  as  an  educator  to  Liberia,  where,  after  render 
ing  valuable  services  as  an  educator  and  public  functionary, 
he  died. 

As  the  colonizationists  had  learned  from  experience  that 
it  was  necessary  to  begin  with  the  youth,  better  institutions 
of  learning  for  Negroes  were  established  for  this  purpose. 
Occasionally  one  would  hear  of  a  southern  planter  who 


160 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


freed  his  Negroes  and  sent  them  to  eastern  schools  to 
undergo  such  education  as  would  prepare  them  for  higher 
life  in  their  new  home  in  Africa.  The  Society,  however, 
soon  found  itself  in  a  dilemma  of  telling  the  people  of  this 
country  that  because  the  free  Negroes  were  a  depraved 
class  they  could  not  be  elevated  in  this  country,  and  at  the 
same  time  encouraging  these  Negroes  and  their  friends  to 
promote  the  education  of 
the  few  to  be  deported  that 
they  might  have  that  same 
mental  development  which 
the  whites  in  this  country 
had  experienced. 

The  colonizationists  soon 
found  themselves  facing 
other  difficulties.  The  very 
people  for  whom  Liberia 
was  established  arrayed 
themselves  against  it.2  It 
was  in  vain  that  some  con 
tended  that 
it  was  a  phil 
anthropic  enterprise,  since 
the  meaning  of  coloniza 
tion  varied,  on  the  one 
hand,  according  to  the 
use  the  slave-holding  class 
hoped  to  make  of  it  and,  on  the  other  hand,  accord 
ing  to  the  intensity  of  the  attacks  directed  against  it. 
The  abolitionists  and  the  free  people  of  color  opposed  the 
Society  because  of  the  acquiescent  attitude  of  coloniza 
tionists  towards  the  persecution  of  the  free  blacks  both  in 
the  North  and  the  South.  Almost  before  the  colonization 


Difficulties  of 
colonization. 


B.  KUSSWURM. 


JOHN  B.  RUSSWURM,  first  Negro  to 

receive  a  degree  from  an  American 

college 


2  L.  R.  Mehlinger,  The  Attitude  of  the  Free  Negro  Toward  African 
Colonization  in  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  276-301. 


Colonization  161. 

societies  had  been  organized,  therefore,  the  free  people 
of  color  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  thought  it  advisable  to  de 
nounce  the  movement,  saying  that  if  they  had  to  be  colo 
nized  they  preferred  to  be  settled  "in  the  remotest  corner 
of  the  land  of  their  nativity."  They  passed  a  resolution 
requesting  Congress  to  grant  them  a  portion  of  territory 
on  the  Missouri  River. 

About  the  same  time  about  three  thousand  free  Negroes 
of  Philadelphia  took  even  higher  ground.  They  claimed 
this  country  as  their  native  land  because  their  ancestors 
were  the  first  successful  cultivators  of  its  soil.  The  protests 
They  felt  themselves  entitled  to  participation  of  Negroes, 
in  the  blessing  of  the  soil  which  their  blood  and  sweat  had 
moistened.  Moreover,  they  were  determined  never  to  sepa 
rate  themselves  from  the  slave  'population  of  this  country 
as  they  were  brothers  by  ' '  ties  of  consanguinity,  of  suffering 
and  of  wrongs."  In  1831  a  Baltimore  meeting  of  free 
Negroes  denounced  the  American  Colonization  Society  as 
being  founded  more  upon  selfish  policy  than  in  the  true 
principles  of  beneficence  and,  therefore,  as  far  as  it  regards 
the  life-giving  principles  of  its  operations,  it  was  not  enti 
tled  to  their  confidence  and  should  be  viewed  by  them  *  *  with 
that  caution  and  distrust  which  happiness"  demanded. 

The  free  people  of  color  in  Boston  inquired  of  those 
desiring  to  send  them  to  Africa  because  they  were  natives 
of  that  land :  *  *  How  can  a  man  be  born  in  two  countries  at 
the  same  time  ? ' '  Referring  also  to  the  pro-  The  feeling 
posal  to  stop  the  slave  trade  by  the  establish-  ^  Bost°n. 
ment  of  a  colony  on  the  western  coast  of  that  continent, 
they  said:  "We  might  as  well  believe  that  a  watchman 
in  the  city  of  Boston  would  prevent  thievery  in  New  York ; 
or  that  the  custom  house  there  would  prevent  goods  from 
being  smuggled  into  any  port  in  the  United  States."  The 
Negroes  of  New  York  declared  about  the  same  time  that 
the  colonizationists  were  men  of  mistaken  views,  that  their 


162  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

offer  to  colonize  the  oppressed  free  people  was  unjust,  and 
illiberal,  tending  to  excite  prejudice  in  the  community. 
The  free  Negroes  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  referred  to  the 
absurd  idea  of  sending  a  nation  of  ignorant  men  to  teach  a 
nation  of  ignorant  men.  They  asked,  moreover,  ''why 
should  we  leave  this  land  so  dearly  bought  by  the  blood, 
groans  and  tears  of  our  fathers  ?  This  is  our  home ;  here  let 
us  live  and  here  let  us  die. ' ' 

Some  of  the  most  distinguished  men  were  effectively 
using  the  rostrum  and  press  to  impede  the  progress  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society. 
The  best  example  of  concerted 
action  against  the  colonization 
movement,  however,  came  from 
the  annual  convention  of  the  free 
colored  people  held  first  in  Phila 
delphia  in  1830  and  afterward  in 

Support  of       that  and  other  cities 
distinguished    annually    until    the 

men-  Civil   War.      The 

moving  spirit   of  this   enterprise  ROBERT  PURVIS 

was  James  Forten,  ably  assisted 

by  Robert  Ray,  James  Cassey,  Robert  Purvis  and  James 
McCrummell.  They  early  took  the  ground  that  they  were 
unable  to  arrive  at  any  other  conclusion  than  that  the 
doctrines  which  the  society  inculcated  were  "suitable  to 
those  who  hold  religion  in  direct  violation  of  the  golden 
rule,  and  that  the  inevitable  tendency  of  this  doctrine  was 
to  strengthen  the  cruel  prejudice  of  their  enemies  and 
retard  their  advancement  in  morals,  literature  and  science 
—in  short,  to  extinguish  the  last  glimmer  of  hope  and 
throw  an  impenetrable  gloom  over  their  former  and  more 
reasonable  prospects." 

In  1852  there  was  held  in  Baltimore  a  pro-colonization 
meeting  at  which,  after  some  discussion,  it  was  decided  to 


Colonization  163 

examine  the  different  localities  for  migration,  giving  pref 
erence  to  Liberia.  Liberia  became  the  bone  of  contention, 
as  very  few  Negroes  were  willing  to  go  to  Colonization  in 
that  country  and  a  majority  of  the  Negroes  Baltimore, 
in  Baltimore  were  opposed  to  colonization  of  any  sort.  As 
these  delegates  had  come  from  various  parts  of  Maryland 
and  did  not  voice  the  sentiment  of  the  people  of  Baltimore, 
they  were  hissed  and  jeered  from  an  outside  meeting  which 
developed  almost  into  a  mob,  intimidating  the  delegates  to 
the  extent  that  they  were  not  permitted  to  exercise  that 
freedom  of  thought  which  the  exigencies  of  the  hour  re 
quired.  Another  meeting  of  the  Baltimore  citizens  de 
nounced  this  assembly  as  unrepresentative  and  proceeded 
to  proclaim  the  determination  of  the  Baltimore  people  to 
oppose  the  policy  of  permanently  attaching  the  free  people 
of  color  to  this  country. 

This  feeling  of  antagonism  of  the  free  people  of  color 
manifested  itself  also  in  New  York  in  1848.  W.  S.  Ball, 
who  had  been  sent  to  Liberia  by  the  free  peo-  An  incident 
pie  of  Illinois,  undertook  to  report  there  to  a  ^  New  York- 
colonization  meeting  as  to  the  lay  of  the  land.  In  express 
ing  himself  as  to  the  attractions  and  opportunities  of  that 
country  he  was  interrupted  by  one  Morrell,  who  approached 
the  platform  and  addressed  the  meeting,  saying  that  the 
question  as  to  colonization  and  the  Liberia  humbug  had  been 
settled  long  ago.  The  audience  was  then  disturbed  with 
hisses  and  jeers,  and  finally  with  yells  for  a  fight,  until  the 
room  was  thrown  into  pandemonium  and  the  meeting  broken 
up  in  disorder. 

Colonization  seemed  destined  then  to  have  rough  sailing. 
Although  the  movement  had  the  cooperation    Thefaiiure 
of  an  unusually  large  number  of  influential    of  African 
men  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North,  it 
failed  to  carry  out  the  desired  object  of  taking  the  free  Ne 
groes  over  to  Africa.     From  1820  to  1833  only  2,885  Ne- 


164  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

groes  were  sent  out  by  the  Society.  More  than  2,700  of 
this  number  were  taken  from  the  slave  States  and  about 
two-thirds  of  these  slaves  manumitted  on  the  condition  of 
their  migrating.  Of  the  7,836  sent  out  of  the  United  States 
by  1852,  2,720  were  born  free,  204  purchased  their  freedom, 
3,868  were  emancipated  in  view  of  removing  them  to 
Liberia,  and  1,044  were  liberated  Africans  sent  out  by  the 
United  States  Government. 

In  the  midst  of  the  oppression  of  the  free  Negroes  and 
the  necessity  for  finding  an  immediate  remedy,  however, 
other  schemes  for  colonization  now  came  forward.  There 
was  proposed  a  colony  of  the  Negroes  in  Texas,  in  1833, 
prior  to  the  time  when  the  State  became  over-run  with 
Other  slaveholders.  The  opportunities  of  this  coun- 

schemes.  try  seemed  to  indicate  that  there  was  some  rea 

son  for  considering  this  plan  feasible,  but  others  thought 
that  it  would  never  suit  Negroes  because  of  the  fugitives 
there  from  Mexico  and  the  presence  of  a  superior  race  of 
people  there  already  speaking  a  different  language  and  hav 
ing  a  different  religion.  There-  was  some  talk,  too,  of  the 
transplanting  of  a  number  of  Negroes  to  British  Guiana. 
It  was  thought  that  because  Santo  Domingo  had  become 
an  independent  republic,  it  would  prove  to  be  an  asylum 
for  the  free  people  of  color  in  this  country,  as  Jefferson  a 
number  of  years  before  had  predicted.3 

This  tendency  towards  the  West  Indies  was  promoted 
by  the  dearth  of  labor  there  resulting  from  the  emancipa 
tion  of  the  slaves,  which,  thanks  to  the  untiring  efforts  of 
The  danger  of  Wilberforce  and  his  coworkers,  was  effected 
the  exodus.  by  1833.  The  West  Indies  offered  induce 
ments  to  Negroes  immigrating  into  their  country.  Among 
these  were  Trinidad,  which  received  a  number  of  Negroes 
from  Baltimore,  Annapolis,  and  Philadelphia^  Jamaica, 

3C.  G.  "\Yoodson,  A  Century  of  Xegro  Migration,  pp.  67-80. 


Colonization 


105 


with  its  many  opportunities,  placed  her  claims  for  these 
refugees  and  sent  her  agents  into  this  country  to  proclaim 
the  beauties  of  her  civilization  and  the  opportunities  of  the 
land.  So  favorable  did  this  scheme  become  that  the  colo- 
nizationists  had  to  redouble  their  efforts  to  prevent  an 
unusually  large  number  of  Negroes  from  going  to  English- 
speaking  colonies.  Living  on  a  plane  of  equality  with  the 

whites  and  enjoying  the 
rights  of  citizens,  they 
would  as  freemen  become 
too  powerful  factors  in 
the  hands  of  the  British, 
should  they  again  under 
take  to  wage  war  against 
the  United  States. 

The  most  successful  col 
onization,  however,  was 
a  sort  of  Migration 
migration  at  to  Canada. 
first  proposed  by  Anthony 
Benezet,  Thomas  Branna- 
gan  and  Thomas  Jefferson. 
This  was  the  migration  to 
distant  lands  in  America, 
especially  to  British  Amer 
ica.4  Canada  had  served  as  an  asylum  for  free  Negroes 
who  had  made  their  escape  into  that  country,  but  during 
the  period  of  the  cruel  oppression  of  their  class  Negroes 
began  to  migrate  there  in  large  numbers.  They  secured 
land  for  farms,  built  homes,  constructed  churches,  estab 
lished  schools  and,  in  fact,  covered  a  considerable  portion 
of  southern  Ontario.  In  spite  of  the  cold  climate,  the 
abolitionists  and  the  free  Negroes  themselves  usually  con- 


WILLIAM  WILBERFORCE,  the  anti- 
slavery  leader  in  England 


4  VV.    II.    Siebert,    The    Underground    Railroad    from    Slavery    to 
Freedom-. 


166  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

sidered  it  more  practical  for  Negroes  to  settle  there  than 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  the 
American  Colonization  Society  in  Africa. 

Nearer  to  the  Civil  War  there  were  established  in  Canada 
a  number  of  Negro  communities  and  towns.  They  exhibited 
the  evidences  of  civilization  found  in  other  parts,  and  the 
Progress  In  Negroes  themselves  gave  proof  of  what  might 
Canada.  be  done,  should  their  race  as  a  whole  be 

given  the  opportunity  to  make  of  itself  what  it  would. 
They  had  learned  to  cultivate  the  soil,  market  their 
products,  and  engage  in  local  manufactures.  They  were, 
moreover,  not  only  coming  into  contact  with  the  commercial 
centers  of  the  United  States  but  had  begun  to  export  and 
import  from  abroad.  Out  of  these  colonies  in  Canada 
emerged  a  number  of  intelligent  Negroes  who  thereafter 
became  factors  in  the  progress  of  their  race. 

In  the  course  of  time,  however,  when  the  conditions  of  the 
free  Negroes  in  Canada  did  not  seem  so  inviting,  a  larger 
number  of  them  began  to  think  that  colonization  elsewhere 
Recrudes-  was  a  necessity,  although  few  of  them  believed 
cence  of  that  they  should  go  to  Africa.  To  deal  with 

on<  this  question  there  was  organized  in  1853  a 
national  council  of  the  leading  Negroes,  attracting  repre 
sentatives  from  as  many  as  twelve  State  conventions.  So 
divided  on  this  question  had  the  Negroes  become,  however, 
that  only  those  persons  who  believed  in  colonization  some 
where  were  asked  to  attend.  Among  the  persons  thus  inter 
ested  were  William  Webb  and  Martin  R.  Delaney,  of  Pitts- 
burg,  Doctor  J.  Gould  Bias  and  Franklin  Turner,  of  Phila 
delphia,  Augustus  R.  Green,  of  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania, 
James  M.  Whitfield,  of  New  York,  William  Lambert,  of 
Michigan,  Henry  Bibb,  James  Theodore  Holly,  of  Canada, 
and  Henry  M.  Collins,  of  California.  Frederick  Douglass, 
an  uncompromising  enemy  to  colonization,  criticized  this 
step  as  uncalled  for,  unwise,  unfortunate,  and  premature. 


Colonization 


167 


"A  convention  to  consider  the  subject  of  emigration,"  said 
he,  "when  every  delegate  must  declare  himself  in  favor  of 
it  beforehand  as  a  condition  of  taking  his  seat,  is  like  the 
handle  of  the  jug,  all  on  one  side."  James  M.  Whitfield, 
the  writer  of  verse,  came  to  the  defense  of  his  co workers, 

continuing  a  literary  duel 
with  Douglass  for  a  num 
ber  of  weeks. 

The  convention  was  ac 
cordingly  held.  In  it  there 
appeared  three  parties,  one 
led  by  Martin  R.  Delaney, 
who  desired  to  go  to  the 
Niger  Valley  in  Africa, 
another  by  James  M.  Whit- 
field,  whose  interests  seemed 
to  be  in  Cen 
tral  America, 
and  a  third  by  Theodore 
Holly,  who  showed  a  pref 
erence  for  Haiti.  The  lead 
ers  of  the  respective  par 
ties  were  commissioned  to 
go  to  these  various  coun 
tries  to  do  what  they  could 
in  carrying  out  their  schemes.  Holly  went  to  Haiti  and 
took  up  with  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  the  question  of 
admitting  Negroes  from  the  United  States. 

Before  any  results  from  these  deliberations  could  be  ob 
tained,  there  appeared  evidence  of  considerable  interest  in 
emigration.  This  was  especially  true  of  Illinois  and  In 
diana,  from  which  commissioners  had  been  sent  out  to  spy 
the  land.  This  is  evidenced,  too,  by  the  sen-  interest  in 
timent  expressed  by  delegates  attending  the  the  West- 
Cleveland  Convention  in  1854.  The  next  colonization  con- 


Expeditions 
sent  out. 


MARTIN    R.    DELANEY,    an    author, 

physician,    and    leader    before    the 

Civil  War 


168  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

vention  was  held  at  Chatham,  Canada  West,  in  1856.  One 
of  the ,  important  features  of  this  meeting  was  the  hearing 
of  the  report  of  Holly,  who  had  gone  to  Haiti  the  previous 
year.  From  this  same  meeting  Martin  R.  Delaney  pro 
ceeded  on  his  mission  to  the  Niger  Valley  in  Africa.  There 
he  concluded  a  treaty  with  eight  African  kings,  offering  in 
ducements  to  Negroes  to  emigrate.  In  the  meantime,  James 
Redpath  had  gone  to  Haiti  and  accomplished  some  things 
that  Holly  failed  to  achieve.  He  was  appointed  Haitian 
Commissioner  of  Emigration  in  the  United  States,  with 
Holly  as  his  coworker.  They  succeeded  in  sending  to  Haiti 
as  many  as  two  thousand  emigrants,  the  first  sailing  in  1861 ; 
but  owing  to  their  unpreparedness  and  the  unfavorable 
climate,  not  more  than  one-third  of  them  remained. 


CHAPTER  XI 

ABOLITION 

BECAUSE  of  the  hard  lot  of  the  Negro,  the  opposition  to 
slavery  was  fanned  into  such  a  flame  during  the  thirties  that 
the  movement  could  no  longer  be  properly  designated  anti- 
slavery.  It  was  abolition,  an  effort  to  effect  William  Lloyd 
the  immediate  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  Garrison, 
since  to  hold  them  in  bondage  was  contrary  to  the  law  of 
God.1  The  most  formidable  leader  of  this  radical  reform 
was  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  who  came  forward  with  the 
argument  that  slavery  was  contrary  to  the  natural  rights  of 
humanity,  had  bad  effects  upon  the  southern  whites,  and 
handicapped  the  whole  Union,  not  only  as  an  evil  but  as  a 
sin.2  Coming  at  a  time  when  the  world  was  again  stirred 
by  the  agitation  for  the  rights  of  man  in  Europe,  this  radi 
cal  movement  secured  much  more  attention  than  it  would 
have  otherwise  received.  Men  were  then  concerned  with 
the  better  treatment  of  paupers,  convicts,  and  the  insane. 
They  were  directing  their  attention  to  special  education  for 
dependents  and  delinquents.  There  was  an  increasing  in 
terest  in  temperance,  the  rights  of  the  laboring  man  then 

1  William  McDonald,  Select  Statutes,  385-437 ;  A.  B.  Hart,  Slaver;/ 
and  Abolition,  152-295;  his  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,  IV,  24, 
42,  72-143;   William  Jay,  Miscellaneous  Writings;  W.  P.  and  F.  J. 
Garrison,    William    Lloyd    Garrison,   passim;    F.    L.    Olmsted,    Back 
Country;  F.  A.  Kemble,  Georgian  Plantation,  passim;  D.  R.  Goodloe, 
Southern   Platform;   H.    von    Hoist,   History   of   the    United   States, 
ill;  J.  B.  McMaster,  History  of  the  United  States,  VI,  567-571. 

2  See  Appendix  for  extract  from  the  Liberator. 

169 


170 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


claimed  all  but  national  attention,  and  woman  suffrage  came 
forward  as  a  promising  reform  of  the  time.  It  was  helpful 
to  the  Garrisonian  movement,  too,  that  new  fields  of  oppor 
tunities  were  then  opening  in  the  North  and  West.  With 
the  growth  of  foreign  trade,  there  arose  a  need  for  that  sort 
of  labor  which  the  unskilled  slave  could  not  furnish.  Ap 
pearing  then  at  this  time,  Garrison  could  more  easily 
arouse  the  people  of  the  whole  country  as  to  the  inevitable 
doom  of  a  slaveholding  nation. 

Basing  his  fight,  therefore,  on  moral  grounds  and  con 
tending  that  slavery  could  not 
be  defended,  he  evoked  the  cen 
sure  of  the  proslavery  people, 
who  became  just  as  radical  and 
fiery  in  the  defense  of  the  insti 
tution  as  he  was  in  attacking  it. 
Slavery  a  After  having  been 
moral  evil.  forced  out  of  Balti 
more  because  of  his  antislavery 
utterances  he  went  to  Boston  and 
founded  the  Liberator.3  The  re 
sult  was  such  a  clash  of  words 
and  a  multitude  of  threats  that 
it  seemed  likely  that  the  South 
might  secede.  This  feeling  was  further  intensified  by  a 
number  of  uprisings  among  Negroes  during  the  first  three 
decades  of  the  nineteenth  century,  culminating  in  Nat 
Turner's  insurrection  in  Virginia  in  1831.  But  intense 
as  this  excitement  became,  Garrison  could  not  be  hushed. 
His  very  words  will  give  a  better  idea  as  to  the  earnest 
ness  of  his  purpose.  He  said,  "I  shall  strenuously  con- 

3  Almost  any  work  on  abolition  deals  largely  with  the  career  of 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  but  the  standard  biography  of  the  reformer 
is  Wendell  Phillips  Garrison  and  Francis  Jackson  Garrison's  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  the  story  of  his  life  told  by  his  children, 


WM.   LLOYD   GARRISON 


Abolition  171 

tend  for  the  immediate  enfranchisement  of  our  slave  popu 
lation.  I  will  be  as  uncompromising  as  justice  on  the 
subject — I  am  not  wrong,  I  will  not  equivocate,  I  will  not 
retreat  a  single  inch  and  I  will  be  heard." 

The  Liberator,  of  course,  could  not  have  at  that  time 
a  very  wide  circulation,  but  it  did  find  sufficient  friends 
interested  in  the  cause  to  maintain  the  publication.     Gar 
rison  showed  that  he  was  by  nature  a  jour-     Garrison  as 
nalist  whose  opportunity  was  unexcelled.     He     a  Journalist, 
always  succeeded  in  making  his  newspaper  lively  by  con 
ducting  editorial  combats  and  in 
furiating    his    antagonists.      His 
work  was  made  more  effective  by 
his  fire-eating  oratory.    "No  ban- 
derillero,"  says  A.  B.  Hart,  "ever 
more  skillfully  planted  his  darts 
in  the  flanks  of  an  enraged  bull ! ' ' 
He  had  no  m,ercy  on  slaveholders, 
accepted  no  excuses  for  their  in 
stitution  and  did  not  distinguish 

between  those  of  the  patriarchial 

LEWIS   IAPPAN 
order    and    those    exploiting    the 

slaves.  Intensely  interested  in  his  cause,  he  breathed  the 
very  earnestness  of  his  truths  in  everything  that  he  said. 
Returning  from  one  of  his  meetings  he  remarked:  "The 
whole  town  has  known  of  freedom.  Every  tongue  is  in 
motion.  If  an  earthquake  had  occurred  it  could  not  have 
excited  more  consternation." 

To  promote  the  cause  effectively  national  organizations 
soon  seemed  a  necessity.  On  October  29,  1833,  therefore, 
there  was  issued  by  Arthur  Tappan,  Joshua  Leavitt,  and 
Elizur  Wright,  officers  of  the  New  York  Antislavery  So 
ciety,  a  call  for  antislavery  representatives  to  meet  in  Phila 
delphia  on  the  fourth  of  the  following  December.  Sixty 


172 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


delegates  appeared  and  adopted  a  constitution,4  together 
with  a  declaration  of  sentiments,  the  original  draft  of  which 
was  drawn  by  William  Lloyd  Garrison.  This  organization 
for  some  years  thereafter  served  as  a  clearing  house  for 
the  expression  of  abolition  sentiment,  but  because  of  differ 
ences  arising  in  the 
ranks  thereafter,  it  had 
to  share  the  field  with 
an  American  and  For 
eign  Antislavery  Soci 
ety  meeting  the  require 
ments  of  those  who  could 
not  conform  with  the 
methods  and  procedure 
of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society. 

Along  with  Garrison 
worked  a  number  of  rad 
icals.5  There  stood 
Wendell  Phillips,  a  well 
made,  remarkably  grace 
ful  person  of  expressive 
countenance  with  a  sort 
of  fascination  in  the  soft  gaze  of  his  eyes,  attracting  atten 
tion  wherever  his  beautifully  musical  voice  was  raised  in 
Wendell  behalf  of  the  slave.  Had  he  been  interested 

Phillips.  jn   some  Other  element  than  the  Negro,   he 

would  to-day  be  known  to  history  as  the  superior  of  Pitt, 
Sheridan,  or  Burke.  Although  having  bright  prospects  for 
a  future  as  a  popular  public  man,  he  early  chose  the  part  of 
cooperating  with  the  much-hated  abolitionists  and  ever 

*  See  Appendix  for  a  copy  of  this  constitution. 

5  The  efforts  of  these  various  workers  are  sketched  in  William 
Wells  Brown's  Rising  Son,  Ch.  on  Abolitionists;  A.  B.  Hart's  Slavery 
and  Abolition,  pp.  152-323:  and  W.  P.  Garrison  and  F.  ,T.  Garrison's 
William  Lloyd  Garrison. 


WENDELL  PHILLIPS 


Abolition 


ANTISLAVERY  APOSTLES 

ABBY  KELLY  FOSTER  STEPHEN  S.  FOSTER 

LUCY  STONE  GEORGE  THOMPSON 


174  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

thereafter  wielded  his  eloquence  in  behalf  of  freedom  and 
democracy. 

A  number  of  others  aligned  themselves  with  these  cham 
pions  of  liberty.  There  was  the  brilliant  scholar,  Edmund 
Quincy,  not  so  eloquent  as  Wendell  Phillips,  but  none 
Other  co-  the  less  staunch  in  his  advocacy  of  freedom, 

workers.  There  appeared  also  Francis  Jackson,  one  of 

the  first  to  stand  by  Garrison  when  the  mob  broke  up  his 
antislavery  meeting  in  1835.  Maria  Weston  Chapman, 
another  of  this  group,  contributed  much  to  the  support  of 
abolition  by  raising  funds  through  the  Antislavery  Bazaar. 
Charles  F.  Hovey,  the  abolition  merchant,  gave  large  sums 
to  support  the  cause.  Eliza  Lee  Follen,  a  poet,  sang  of 
liberty  and  freedom.  Sydney  Howard  Gay,  the  polished 
writer,  boldly  advocated  instant  emancipation.  William 
J.  Bowditch,  a  scholarly  lawyer,  used  his  talent  to  promote 
freedom.  With  sketches  of  intelligent  Negroes  Lydia  Maria 
Child  gave  the  race  a  hearing  in  circles  formerly  closed. 
Thomas  Garrett  kept  the  same  fires  burning  in  proslavery 
Delaware. 

Prominent  in  this  group  was  Samuel  May,  Jr.,  who  for 
some  years  served  efficiently  as  the  general  agent  of  the 
Society.  When  the  cause  of  abolition  seemed  helpless,  May 
Samuel  May.  abandoned  a  church  paying  him  a  lucrative 
salary  that  he  might  help  to  save  the  work,  and,  says  an 
historian,  "To  his  perseverance,  industry,  gentlemanly  man 
ners  and  good  sense  the  Society  owed  much  of  its  success." 
Although  simple  and  plain,  he  was  an  earnest  speaker, 
showing  such  depth  of  thought  that  persons  concerned  with 
universal  freedom  learned  to  wait  upon  his  words. 

Samuel  J.  May,  another  abolitionist  of  almost  the  same 
name,  was  a  philanthropist  by  nature.  He  sympathized 
with  Garrison  and  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  So 
ciety,  being  one  of  the  signers  of  Garrison's  " Declaration 
of  Sentiments,"  presenting  the  principles  upon  which  the 


Abolition 


175 


right  of  man  to  freedom  is  based  and  the  call  to  all  men  to 
promote  emancipation.  May  was  one  of  the  few  who  stood 
by  Prudence  Crandall  in  Canterbury,  Connecticut,  when 
she  was  by  special  enactment  imprisoned  because  she  dared 
to  admit  girls  of  color  to  her  academy.  He  made  his  home 

a  place  of  refuge  for  fugi 
tive  slaves  and  opened  his 
church  to  any  intelligent 
lecturer  who  carried  the 
message  of  freedom. 

To  promote  this  cause  a 
corps  of  workers  were  re 
quired  to  serve  as  lectur 
ers  in  the  field.  These  had 
to  do  the  most  difficult 
work  of  win-  Antislavery 
ning  the  pub-  lecturers, 
lie  to  the  movement.  Hissed 
and  jeered  by  proslavery 
sympathizers  hurling  upon 
them  rotten  eggs,  sticks 
and  stones,  these  agents  un 
selfishly  performed  their 
task.  Some  neither  asked 
nor  received  any  compen 
sation;  others  gave  their 
time  and  paid  their  own  expenses.  Among  these  lecturers 
who  thus  toiled  was  Abby  Kelly  Foster,  the  Joan  of 
Arc  of  the  antislavery  movement.  She  was  a  slim  but 
well  proportioned  and  fine-looking  woman  of  Abby  Kelly 
bright  eyes,  clear  voice,  drawing  such  life-like  Foster, 
pictures  of  the  black  woman  in  chains  that  one  could  not 
hear  her  without  shedding  tears.  A  logical,  forceful 
speaker,  successful  with  irony  or  argument  and  quick  at 
repartee,  Mrs.  Foster  usually  convinced  her  audience  or 


PRUDENCE  CRANDALL 


176 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


discomfited  her  opponents.  Along  with  Mrs.  Foster  went 
her  faithful  husband,  Stephen  S.  Foster.  He  was  one  of 
those  who  did  not  despise  the  cause  in  its  day  of  small 
things.  He  labored  incessantly  to  promote  the  work,  and 
because  of  his  unusual  zeal  and  honest  method  of  "hewing 
to  the  line  and  the  plum 
met"  he  became  the  most 
unpopular  of  the  antislav- 
ery  agents.  Yet  he  al 
ways  told  the  truth,  did 
not  overstate  a  question 
and  usually  proved  his 
point. 

There  were  others  scarce 
ly  less  active.  The  elo 
quent  Charles  C.  Bur- 
Less  active  leigh,  one  of 
lecturers.  the  most  suc. 

cessful  debaters  champion 
ing  the  cause  of  the  slave, 
would  have  been  almost  as 
effective  as  Wendell  Phil 
lips  had  he  not  spoken 
rather  fast.  Burleigh  ren 
dered  the  cause  much  aid 
rs  a  lecturer  and  the  editor 


LUNRFORD  LAXE,  a  native  of  North 

Carolina,  who  lectured  in  the  North 

against  slavery 


of  The  Pennsylvania  Freeman.  Lucy  Stone,  an  unpre 
possessing  but  pleasant  woman  of  medium  stature,  round 
face,  sparkling  eyes,  and  with  her  hair  cut  short,  be 
came  with  her  abundance  of  enthusiasm  one  of  the  most 
rctive  abolitionists,  moving  the  people  by  forceful  argu 
ments  and  pathetic  appeals.  Susan  B.  Anthony,  later 
known  to  greater  fame  as  an  advocate  of  woman  suf 
frage,  stood  out  as  an  eloquent  abolition  speaker  with 
few  equals.  Andrew  T.  Foss  left  his  pulpit  to  devote 


Abolition 


177 


all  of  his  time  to  abolition.  Sallie  Hollie  put  so  much 
Scripture  and  prayer  into  her  appeals  that  few  refused  her 
a  hearing.  Oliver  Johnson,  the  ready  debater,  accom 
plished  writer  and  eloquent  speaker,  not  only  served  on 
the  platform  but  at  times  edited  The  Herald  of  Freedom, 
The  Antislavery  Standard,  and  The  Antislavery  Bugle. 
Henry  C.  Wright  devoted  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  the 
cause.  The  Grimke  sisters,  daughters  of  a  prominent  citi 
zen  in  Charleston,  South  Caro 
lina,  left  the  South  that  they 
might  without  interruption  bear 
witness  against  slavery.  Charles 
B.  Stebbins,  the  acute  thinker 
and  able  speaker,  also  decidedly 
aided  the  movement.  Nathaniel 
P.  Rogers,  with  his  penetrating 
mind,  dealt  hard  blows  at  slavery 
through  The  Herald  of  Freedom. 
William  Goodell  and  Theodore  F. 
Weld  exposed  the  institution  by 
publishing  works  on  slavery. 
James  Miller  McKim,  a  promoter 

of  the  Underground  Railroad,  was  once  the  moving  spirit 
of  the  Antislavery  Society  in  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was 
ably  assisted  by  the  untiring  and  eloquent  Mary  Grew. 

Abolition  was  put  on  its  feet  in  Pennsylvania,  however,  by 
Lucretia  Mott.6    She  was  a  woman  of  faultless  head,  thought 
ful  countenance,  beaming  eyes,  and  full  voice,  hesitant  in 
speech  at  the  beginning  and  then  growing     James  and 
easily    eloquent.     Assisted   by   a   husband     Lucretia  Mott. 
giving  his  means  and  time  to  the  work,  Lucretia  Mott  stirred 
up  the  people.    Abolitionist  to  the  manner  born,  she  endeav 
ored  to  effect  a  proscription  of  the  products  of  slave  labor 
by  discouraging  the  use  of  clothing  and  foods  produced  in 


LUCRETIA  MOTT 


6  A.  D.  Hallowell,  James  and  Lucretia  Mott;  Life  and  Letters. 


178 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


the  South.  She  carried  with  her,  to  sweeten  her  tea,  sugar 
produced  by  free  labor  rather  than  run  the  risk  of  having 
to  use  that  produced  by  slaves.  A  woman  of  culture  and 
conversant  with  the  conditions  obtaining  among  the  slaves, 
she  attracted  the  attention  of  the  indifferent  observer  and 
impressed  upon  his  mind  a  new  thought  of  the  man  far 
down.  In  her  attack  on 
slavery  no  abolitionist  was 
more  fearless,  none  more 
successful  in  presenting 
the  cause. 

Yet  eloquent  as  was  the 
appeal  of  white  men  in  be 
half  of  the  slave  the  aboli- 
Charles  L.  tionists  soon 
Remond.  realized  that 

the  Negro  pleading  his  own 
cause  could  wield  effective 
blows  against  slavery.  The 
first  Negro  to  be  called  to 
this  service  was  Charles  L. 
Remond,  who,  until  the  rise 
of  Frederick  Douglass,  was 
probably  the  ablest  repre 
sentative  of  the  Negro  race.  He  was  small  of  stature,  of 
spare  build,  neat  and  genteel  in  appearance.  He  possessed  a 
pleasing  voice  and  early  attained  rank  as  an  acceptable 
speaker.  A  free-born  Negro  himself,  he  felt  more  keenly 
the  prejudice  against  his  class  than  he  did  the  persecution 
of  the  slaves,  and  confined  his  speeches  largely  to  the  desired 
change  in  the  attitude  of  the  whites  toward  the  people  of 
color.  So  proud  was  he  of  being  a  free  man  of  color  that  he 
often  boasted  that  he  had  not  a  drop  of  slave  blood  in  his 
veins.  He  contributed  to  newspapers  and  magazines  fre- 


CHABLES   LENOX  REMOND 


Abolition 


170 


quent  letters  and  articles  exhibiting-  clearness,  force,  and 
depth.  It  was  said  that  no  other  man  could  put  more  real 
meaning  in  fewer  words.  Remond,  thus  equipped  for  his 
task,  was  employed  by  the  Antislavery  Society  as  a  lec 
turer  for  about  thirty  years.  In  1840  he  attended  the 
Convention  of  the  World  Antislavery  Society  in  England, 
remaining  abroad  two  years  to  lecture  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  where  he  made- a  very  favorable  impression. 

Other  Negroes  were  al- 
s  o  successful.  William 
Wells  Brown  thus  served 
the  Society  from  1843  to 
1849,  and  also  Lunsford 
Lane  of  North  Carolina, 
some  years  later.  So- 
journer  Truth,  by  her 
mysterious  commun- 
ings,  seemed  to  acquire 
miraculous  power  as  a  co- 
worker  of  the  abolitionists 
to  stir  audiences  with  her 
heavy  voice,  quaint  lan 
guage  and  homely  illustra 
tions.  But  another  Negro 
thus  employed  was  more 
successful.  He  was  not 
merely  a  Negro  asking  for 
the  rights  of  freemen,  but 
the  developed  emancipated  slave  going  through  the  country 
as  the  embodiment  of  what  the  slave  was  and  what  he  might 
become.  He  was  then  not  only  the  thing  discussed  by  the 
abolitionists,  but  the  union  of  the  lecturer  Frederick 
and  his  subject.  Endowed,  too,  with  philo-  Douglass, 
sophical  insight  and  broader  intellect  than  most  men,  he 


SOJOURNER  TRUTH 


180 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


soon  developed  an  effective  oratory  with  which  nature  had 
enriched  his  gifts.  This  man  was  Frederick  Douglass.7 
Unlike  Remond,  Douglass  had  much  originality  and  un 
adorned  eloquence  rather  than  a  fine  flow  of  language. 
When  the  country,  there 
fore,  had  heard  Frederick 
Douglass,  Remond  became 
a  second-rate  man.  This 
soured  the  spirit  of  the  lat 
ter,  who  fell  a  victim  of 
speaking  disparagingly  of 
his  coworker.  But  Rem 
ond  was  not  the  only  anti- 

The  success       slavery    o  r  a- 
of  Douglass.     tor     to     paie 

intd  insignificance  on  the 
approach  of  the  "eloquent 
fugitive"  from  slavery  in 
Maryland;  for  the  people 
preferred  to  hear  Douglass. 
And  well  might  they  de 
sire  to  see  and  hear  this 
man.  He  was  tall  and  well 
made,  with  a  fully-devel 
oped  forehead.  He  was  dignified  in  appearance,  polished  in 
his  language,  and  gentlemanly  in  his  manner.  A  contempo 
rary  said  :  * '  He  is  a  man  of  lofty  reason,  natural  and  with 
out  pretension ;  always  master  of  himself ;  brilliant  in  the 
art  of  exposing  and  abstracting. ' '  Another  said  :  "In  his 
very  look,  his  gesture,  his  whole  manner,  there  is  so  much 
of  genuine,  earnest  eloquence,  that  they  have  no  time  for  re 
flection.  Now  you  are  reminded  of  one  rushing  down  some 

7  See  Frederick  Douglass'  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Frederick  Doug 
lass,  as  an  American  Slave,  and  his  Life  and  Times  of  Frederick 
Douglass  from  1811  to  1882. 


FREDERICK   DOUGLASS 


Abolition  181 

fearful  steep,  bidding  you  follow;  now  on  some  delightful 
stream,  still  beckoning  you  onward.  In  either  case,  no  mat 
ter  what  your  prepossessions  or  oppositions,  you  for  the 
moment,  at  least,  forget  the  justness  or  unjustness  of  the 
cause,  and  obey  the  summons,  and  loath,  if  at  all,  you  re 
turn  to  your  former  post." 


CHAPTER  XII 

FURTHER  PROTEST 

IN  the  western  part  of  the  country,  too,  abolition  was  for 
economic  reasons  gradually  gaining  ground.  There  had 
always  been  much  antislavery  sentiment  in  the  mountains 
of  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  West  Virginia. 
Abolition  in  When  the  intolerable  condition  of  the  Negroes 
the  West.  jn  the  South  made  it  impossible  for  the  persons 
in  that  part  of  the  country  to  do  for  the  Negroes  what  they 
desired,  they  moved  into  the  Northwest  Territory  where 
they  could  carry  out  their  plans  for  the  uplift  of  the  blacks. 
Accordingly,  in  these  mountains  there  arose  a  number  of 
antislavery  societies.  Among  the  persons  operating  as  the 
nucleus  around  which  this  sentiment  developed  were  such 
men  as  Benjamin  Lundy  in  Tennessee,  James  G.  Birney  in 
Kentucky,  and  Daniel  R.  Goodloe  in  North  Carolina.  Other 
ideas,  too,  tended  to  influence  the  youth,  as  it  happened  in 
the  case  of  the  students  in  Maryville  College  in  Tennessee, 
more  than  half  of  whom  had  become  antislavery  by  the 
year  1841,  and  in  that  of  Berea  College  in  Kentucky,  which 
developed  from  a  group  of  students  influenced  largely  by 
In  Kentucky.  Cassius  M.  Clay,  the  antislavery  editor,  ancfr 
John  G.  Fee,1  the  abolition  orator  who  founded  that  in 
stitution. 

As  this  sentiment  tended  to  spread  in  the  proportion  that 
the  antislavery  leaders  of  the  western  slave  States  were 
forced  to  go  North,  there  was  made  possible  a  better  chance 
for  abolition  in  centers  where  it  had  been  considered  danger- 

i  John  G.  Fee's  Antislavery  Manual. 

182 


Further  Protest 


SOUTHERN  ABOLITIONISTS 

BENJAMIN  LUNDY  DANIEL  R.  GOODLOE 

JAMES  G.  BIRNEY 

.Trmv    f\     VW.T?.  CASSTTTS   ^\F.   CT.AY 


184  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ous.  In  Lane  Theological  Seminary  in  Cincinnati,  the  ar 
dent  discussion  of  slavery  led  to  a  sort  of  upheaval,  result- 
Lane  ing  in  a  division  of  the  students.  Theodore 
Seminary.  F  Weld,  one  of  this  group,  actually  espoused 
the  cause  of  Garrison  and  undertook  to  translate  into  action 
his  theories  of  Negro  uplift  by  actually  teaching  colored 
children.  As  Lane  Theological  Seminary  was  then  attended 
by  a  number  of  southern  students,  a  separation  of  those 
who  had  thus  become  divided  was  necessary.  When  the 
trustees  tried  to  prevent  further  discussion  of  slavery 
four-fifths  of  the  students  withdrew.  Fifty-four  asserted 
their  right  to  a  freedom  of  discussion  of  this  important 
topic,  and  under  leaders  like  Asa  Mahan  and  John  Morgan 
retired  to  the  Western  Reserve  and  established  Oberlin 
College.2 

In  that  same  section  of  Ohio,  however,  antislavery  so 
cieties  had  already  flourished  under  the  leadership  of 
Samuel  Crothers,  John  Rankin,  and  Elizur  Wright,  later  a 
The  Western  professor  in  the  Western  Reserve  College. 
Reserve.  These  antislavery  centers,  too,  were  further 

strengthened  by  the  coming  of  James  G.  Birney3  from 
Kentucky,  from  which  he  had  been  driven  because  of  his 
antislavery  utterances.  He  first  established  in  Cincin 
nati,  Ohio,  the  Philanthropist,  a  newspaper  which  wielded 
great  influence  in  preparing  the  minds  of  the  people  of  this 
country  for  a  fair  discussion  of  slavery,  although  his  life  was 
several  times  endangered  and  his  press  was  twice  broken 
up  and  destroyed. 

Another  group  of  abolitionists  deserve  honorable  mention. 
These  were  reformers  of  a  milder  sort,  who  could  neither 
tolerate  radicalism  nor  approve  the  methods  of  some  of  the 

2  This  is  narrated   in  the  First   Annual  Report  of  the  America** 
Anti-Slavery  Society. 

3  James  G.  Birney,  The  American  Churches,  the  Bulwarks  of  Amer 
ican  Slavery;  and  William  Birney,  James  0.  Birney  and  His  Times. 


Further  Protest 


185 


less  ardent  antislavery  group.     Among  those  taking  this 
position  was  Dr.  William  Ellery  Channing,   a  Unitarian 
minister  of  much  fame  in  Boston  and  New-      William  E. 
port.     His  appeal  was  to  the  intellect  rather      Charming, 
than  to  the  emotion.    In  presenting  his  case  he  wrote  essays 
on  slavery,  making  a  forceful  argument  as  to  evil  of  the 
institution   but   suggesting 
some  remedy  other  than  in 
stant  abolition.    Along  with 
Channing    may    be    men 
tioned  scores  of  writers  like 
Fredrika  Bremer,  Frances 
Kemble,  Henry  Wadsworth 
Longfellow,  James  Russell 
Lowell,  and  John  G.  Whit- 
tier. 

There  were  abolitionists 
who  in  addition  to  appear 
ing  on  the  platform  other 
wise  rendered  the  cause 
valuable  service.  Among 
these  were  Arthur  and 
Lewis  Tappan,  successful 
merchants  of  New  York, 
who  had  for  years  sup 
ported  the  cause  of  coloni 
zation  but,  seeing  that  it  did  not  reach  the  root  of  the 
evil,  abandoned  that  movement  to  promote  abolition. 
More  prominent  than  these  was  Gerrit  Smith  of  Peter- 
boro,  New  York,  son  of  an  ex-slaveholder.  He  too,  had 
at  first  restricted  his  efforts  at  uplifting  the  Negroes  to 
what  could  be  effected  through  the  colonization  society. 
Becoming  more  interested  in  the  behalf  of  the  Negroes  and 
also  developing  in  his  mind  anti-land  monopolist  tendencies, 
he  devised  the  scheme  of  improving  their  condition  by 


GERRIT  SMITH 


186  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

transplanting  them  from  the  city  to  small  farms  in  the 
country.  He  therefore  addressed  a  letter  to  Charles  B.  Ray, 
Dr.  J.  McCune  Smith  and  Theodore  S.  Wright,  prominent 
Negroes  of  New  York  City,  asking  them  to  designate  a  num- 
Gerrit  Smith,  her  of  Negroes  whom  he  might  thus  colonize 
on  his  lands  in  certain  counties  in  southeastern  New  York. 
This  list  was  accordingly  given  and  the  enterprise  under 
taken,  but  because  of  the  infelicity  of  the  soil  and  the  lack 
of  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  Negroes,  it  failed. 

The  more  intense  the  abolition  agitation  grew,  however, 
the  more  sectional  the  movement  became.  Backward  as  the 
institution  of  slavery  seemed,  the  South  became  more  and 
more  attached  to  it  and  would  not  countenance  any  attack 
The  South  on  it.  Not  only  was  the  old-time  abolitionist 
proslavery.  in  Danger  there  after  1840,  but  the  ordinary 
observer  who  suggested  moral  suasion  held  his  social  posi 
tion  by  precarious  tenure.  Cassius  M.  Clay  was  driven  out 
of  Lexington,  Kentucky,  by  proslavery  citizens  who  could 
not  tolerate  the  antislavery  sentiments  expressed  in  his 
The  True  American.  Upon  receiving  some  copies  of  the 
Emancipator,  which  he  loaned  to  white  friends  while  in 
Washington,  Dr.  Reuben  Crandall  of  New  York  was  ar 
rested  and  imprisoned  on  the  charge  of  inciting  a  riot 
among  the  slaves  but,  after  waiting  trial  eight  months  in 
jail,  he  was  declared  not  guilty.  Not  knowing  the  temper 
of  the  South,  an  English  traveling  bookseller  was  whipped 
and  driven  out  of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  in  1832,  because 
he  dared  to  say  at  the  time  of  the  Nat  Turner  insurrection 
excitement  that  the  blacks  as  men  were  entitled  to  their 
freedom  and  should  be  emancipated.  Amos  Dresser,  a 
student  of  Lane  Seminary  and  of  Oberlin  College,  was 
whipped  and  expelled  from  the  State  of  Tennessee  because, 
while  selling  books  im»that  State,  he  had  a  copy  of  the  Eman 
cipator  wrapped  around  a  Bible  left  in  a  Nashville  hotel. 

Abolition  in  the  South,  therefore,  ceased  to  be  openly 


Further  Protest  187 

agitated.  The  radicalism  of  Garrison  tended  to  solidify 
the  South  against  the  struggle  for  free  institutions.  His 
advice  to  Negroes  to  educate  their  children,  to  build  up 
their  own  trades,  aid  the  fugitives,  and  to  Abolition 
qualify  as  voters,  stirred  up  the  South;  for  quelled  in 
there  it  was  believed  that  if  both  races  were  fc  e  { >outlL 
free,  one  would  have  to  be  driven  out  by  the  other  or  ex 
terminated.  Southerners  caused  alarm  by  the  false  rumor 
that  the  abolitionists  advocated  the  amalgamation  of  the 
races,  although  Jay  did  not  think  that  white  men  would 
have  to  select  black  wives  and  John  Rankin  disclaimed  any 
such  desire  for  miscegenation,  while  Channing  thought  we 
have  no  right  to  resist  it  and  it  is  not  unnatural.  South 
erners  were  successful,  too,  in  promoting  their  cause  by 
raising  the  complaint  of  the  circulation  of  incendiary  pub 
lications  portraying  by  pictures,  cuts  and  drawings,  the 
cruelties  of  slavery  to  acquaint  the  bondmen  with  the  awful 
state  to  which  they  were  reduced.  These  publications, 
however,  because  of  the  crass  ignorance  in  which  most 
Negroes  were  kept,  as  a  rule,  never  reached  them.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  like  Samuel  Green,  a  free  Negro,  in 
Maryland,  who  was  sent  to  the  Maryland  penitentiary  for 
having  in  his  home  a  copy  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  there  were 
not  many  instances  of  Negroes  making  use  of  these  publi 
cations. 

Moderate  abolitionists  in  the  South  thereafter  either 
abandoned  their  plan  or  cooperated  with  the  colonizationists 
in  seeking  an  opportunity  for  the  national  development 
of  the  Negro  abroad.  Radical  abolitionists  Martyrdom  of 
either  left  for  the  North  or  remained  in  the  abolitionists. 
South  to  entice  Negroes  to  escape  from  their  masters  by 
way  of  the  Underground  Railroad.  As  this  was  a  rather 
dangerous  risk  in  the  South  where  such  was  heavily  penal 
ized,  many  of  these  persons  almost  suffered  martyrdom  in 
behalf  of  the  fugitives.  Jonathan  Walker  was  branded 


188  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

with  a  hot  iron  for  aiding  the  escape  of  a  slave.  In  1841 
Thompson,  Burr  and  Burke,  abolitionists  from  Illinois, 
were  sentenced  to  serve  a  term  in  the  Missouri  penitentiary 
for  persuading  slaves  to  escape  from  the  town  of  Palmyra. 
In  1844  L.  W.  Paine,  a  Rhode  Island  machinist  working  in 
Georgia,  was  thus  imprisoned  six  years  for  the  same  offense. 
John  L.  Brown  was,  in  1846,  condemned  to  be  hanged  for 
aiding1  fugitives,  but  the  sentence  was  commuted  to  a  whip 
ping.  Daniel  Drayton,  captain  of  a  vessel  upon  which  he 
permitted  seventy-seven  slaves  to  escape  from  their  masters 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  lost  his  health  while  he  was 
being  almost  starved  there  in  confinement  in  an  unsanitary 
prison  cell.  Another  of  these  sympathizers,  Delia  Webster, 
a  young  lady  from  Vermont,  teaching  in  Kentucky  to  find 
an  opportunity  for  thus  aiding  fugitives,  was  sent  to  the 
penitentiary  for  two  years.  Calvin  N.  Fairbank,  her  ac 
complice,  was  sentenced  to  serve  a  term  of  fifteen  years 
in  the  State  prison.  When  pardoned  by  Governor  John  J. 
Crittenden,  he  immediately  resumed  his  work  in  defiance  of 
law  and  public  opinion,  and  in  1852  was  imprisoned  the 
second  time  for  fifteen  years.  He  was  not  released  until 
1864,  when  the  sympathetic  Acting  Governor  Richard  T. 
Jacobs,  taking  advantage  of  the  absence  of  Governor  Bram- 
lette,  pardoned  Fairbank.  Charles  T.  Torrey,  a  graduate 
of  Yale  and  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  went  to  An 
napolis  to  report  a  slaveholders '  convention,  for  which  he 
was  arrested  and  required  to  give  bond  for  his  good  be 
havior.  Some  years  later,  upon  being  charged  with  having 
assisted  a  slave  in  escaping  from  his  master,  Torrey  was 
convicted  and  imprisoned  in  a  Maryland  penitentiary,  in 
which  he  died. 

Exactly  what  the  abolitionists  accomplished  is  difficult 
to  estimate.  Some  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  radicals 
did  the  cause  of  emancipation  more  harm  than  good.  Few 
white  men  of  that  day  felt  that  the  slaves  could  be  in- 


Further  Protest 


_, 


1 


WHITE  MARTYRS  IN  THE  CAUSE  OF  ABOLITION 
DANIEL  DRAYTON  L.  W.  PAINE 

CALVIN  FAIRBANK  CHARLES  T.  TORREY 


190  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

stantly  emancipated.  Most  advocates  of  freedom  had 
thought  of  gradual  methods,  and  the  radical  reformers  who 
stirred  up  the  whole  country  with  the  idea  of  immediate 
Achievements  abolition  set  the  conservatives  against  eman- 
of  the  ^  cipation.  The  agitation  itself,  however,  was 
hopeful.  It  showed  that  the  country  had  de 
veloped  a  feeling  of  nationalism.  A  man  living  in  Boston 
had  begun  to  think  that  to  some  extent  he  was  responsible 
for  an  evil  obtaining  in  South  Carolina.  Leaders  of  thought 
were  no  longer  content  to  leave  it  to  the  various  States  to 
decide  for  themselves  whether  or  not  an  evil  should  be 
tolerated  within  their  limits.  Slavery  had  become  so  en 
grafted  upon  the  country  as  to  require  national  attention 
and  national  treatment.  It  resulted,  therefore,  in  inciting  a 
large  number  of  antislavery  people  to  greater  activity  and 
enabled  the  abolition  societies  to  unify  their  efforts  through 
out  the  North  by  organizing  and  stimulating  local  bodies,  all 
of  which  helped  to  make  possible  the  destruction  of  slavery. 
In  the  beginning  their  struggle  was  a  hard  one,  but  they 
had,  after  1836,  gained  considerable  ground.  In  the  first 
Radical  place,  the  North  did  not  take  seriously  the 

abolition.  agitation  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  a  sec 
tion  closely  connected  with  its  financial  and  manufacturing 
centers.  Others,  who  had  no  such  interests,  moreover,  re 
garded  the  abolition  agitation  as  a  direct  attack  on  the 
Union,  in  that  the  provision  for  the  continuance  of  slavery 
in  the  Constitution  was  attacked ;  and  citizens  in  Southern 
States,  considering  these  attacks  as  intended  to  disturb  the 
peace  in  their  commonwealths,  declared  that  it  furnished 
sufficient  ground  for  withdrawal  from  the  Union.  In  sev 
eral  of  the  Northern  States,  therefore,  legislation  was  pro 
posed  to  penalize  discussions  "calculated  to  excite  insurrec 
tion  among  the  slaves,"  as  an  offense  against  the  peace  of 
the  State.  Some  undertook  to  brand  the  efforts  of  the  aboli 
tionists  as  acts  of  sedition.  As  the  abolitionists  made  good 


Further  Protest  191 

their  right  of  free  speech,  however,  they  were  not  ham 
pered  in  the  North  by  such  laws. 

As  it  was  therefore  necessary  for  the  opponents  of  the 
abolitionists  to  express  themselves  in  some  other  way,  they 
resorted  to  mob  violence.  During  the  years  from  1834  to 
1836  about  twenty-five  or  thirty  efforts  were  made  to  break 
up  abolition  meetings.  There  was  an  anti-  Antiaboli- 
abolition  riot  at  Clinton  Hall  in  New  York  in  tion  riots- 
1833.  Then  followed  a  number  of  riots,  culminating  in 
the  destruction  of  the  property  of  the  abolitionists  in  1834, 
when  the  same  sort  of  violence  broke  out  in  Utica,  New 
York.  When  George  Thompson,  the  experienced  spokes 
man  of  the  abolitionists  in  England,  came  to  this  country 
to  further  the  cause,  and  had  himself  advertised  to  speak 
in  Boston,  the  so-called  friends  of  the  Union  organized  a 
mob,  but  Thompson,  having  had  notice  as  to  what  they 
hoped  to  do,  failed  to  appear.  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
who  had  the  courage  to  attend,  found  himself  in  the  midst 
of  a  riotous  crowd  whom  the  mayor,  despite  his  efforts, 
could  not  control.  When  the  mayor  made  known  his  in 
ability  to  control  the  mob,  the  crowd  ran  Garrison  down, 
put  a  rope  around  his  body  and  pulled  him  through  the 
streets  of  Boston.  "The  man,"  said  an  observer,  "walked 
with  head  erect,  flashing  eyes,  like  a  martyr  going  to  the 
stake,  full  of  faith  and  manly  hope. ' '  To  save  his  life,  the 
mayor  sent  Garrison  to  the  Charles  Street  jail,  where  he 
was  with  some  difficulty  rescued  from  the  mob. 

In  Pennsylvania,  in  which  the  large  city  of  Philadelphia 
offered  many  reasons  for  close  commercial  attachment  to 
the  South,  the  cause  of  abolition  had  much  opposition,  de 
spite  the  healthy  antislavery  sentiment  among  the  Quak 
ers.  As  the  city  of  Philadelphia  was  being  Disorder  in 
rapidly  filled  up  at  this  time  with  Germans  Pennsylvania, 
and  Scotch-Irish,  who  observed  the  prosperity  of  migrating 
freedmen  with  a  covetous  eye,  these  business  men  could  by 


192  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

a  very  little  encouragement  to  the  disorderly  crowd  bring 
about  a  riot,  especially  so  when  the  city  was  very  poorly 
policed.  A  mob  disgraced  the  city  in  1834  by  beating  up 
a  number  of  Negroes  and  damaging  fifty-four  houses.  It 
was  somewhat  difficult  thereafter  to  find  a  place  for  abo 
lition  meetings.  Negro  churches  closed  their  doors  to  these 
agitators,  not  because  they  could  not  appreciate  the  impetus 
the  abolitionists  gave  the  cause  of  freedom,  but,  knowing 
that  any  building  in  which  an  abolition  meeting  was  held 
might  be  burned,  the  Negroes  had  to  exercise  precaution. 
To  solve  this  problem,  the  abolitionists  constructed  a  build 
ing  of  their  own,  known  as  Pennsylvania  Hall,  but  when  it 
was  noised  abroad  that  Garrison  and  other  abolitionists  had 
addressed  a  meeting  there,  on  May  16,  1838,  there  was 
formed  a  mob  which  broke  open  the  doors,  set  fire  to  the 
building,  and  prevented  the  authorities  from  extinguishing 
the  flames.  Pittsburgh  had  such  an  outbreak  the  following 
year. 

In  the  western  part  of  the  United  States,  where  the  abo 
litionists  were  equally  bold,  the  same  sort  of  riotous  con 
dition  obtained.  In  1836  a  mob,  long  since  enraged  because 
Riots  In  of  the  advocacy  of  abolition  in  the  Philanthro- 

the  West.  pist,  edited  by  James  G.  Birney,  destroyed  his 
office  and  made  desperate  efforts  to  take  his  life.  In  Alton, 
Illinois,  the  place  in  which  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  had  sought 
refuge  for  his  abolition  efforts,  when  he  had  been  forced  to 
leave  St.  Louis  for  criticizing  the  burning  of  a  Negro  at 
the  stake,  the  same  violence  broke  out.  After  his  press  had 
been  twice  destroyed,  his  building  was  attacked  by  a  mob 
on  November  7,  1837.  He  returned  their  fire  but,  on  wait 
ing  patiently  on  the  outside  for  the  exit  of  Lovejoy  some 
time  thereafter,  the  mob  shot  him  dead.  The  jury  ap 
pointed  to  inquire  into  the  guilt  of  the  offenders  required 
only  ten  minutes  to  bring  in  a  verdict  of  not  guilty. 

Instead    of    preventing    the    rise    of    abolition,    as    was 


Further  Protest 


193 


expected,  these  efforts  rather  tended  to  increase  the  senti 
ment  in  the  North  against  slavery.     In  some  of  the  State 
legislatures  there  began  to  appear  a  number  of  antislavery 
members,   and  very  soon  even  in   Congress.     Results  of 
John  P.  Hale  first  took  a  stand  against  slavery     Tiots- 
in  the  Senate.    In  1838  there  came  to  Congress  the  down 
right  abolitionist,  Joshua  R.  Giddings  of  the  Western  Re 
serve.     William   Slade   of 
Vermont,    an    antislavery 
man,  was  sent  to  that  body 
in  1840.     There  appeared, 
too,      Thomas     Morris, 
a   United    States   Senator 
from  Ohio,  who  rendered 
the  cause  much  assistance. 
The  abolitionists  then  had 
the  opportunity  to  gain  na 
tional     recognition     as     a 
body  primarily  interested 
in    promoting    the    moral 
life  and  atmosphere  of  the 
country.     But   they   were 
far  apart  in  their  method 
of  procedure,  and  radical 
utterances  denouncing  the 
Constitution  as  a  proslav- 
ery  document,  while  others 
argued  that  it  was  antislavery,  did  their  cause  unusual 
harm. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  insisted  that  the  Constitution  is  an  anti- 
slavery  document,  making  the  institution  a  black  forgery. 
Replying  to  the  arguments  of  the  proslavery     Radical 
element  that  slavery  was  maintained  by  the     leaders 
Federal   Constitution,  some  others,   although      increased- 
not  advocates  of  instant  abolition,  insisted  that  a  higher 


SENATOR  JOHN  P.  HALE 


194  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

law  than  the  Constitution  protested  against  the  action  of 
Congress  on  this  point.  According  to  the  law  of  human 
nature  "no  greater  crime  against  human  beings  can  be 
committed  than  to  make  him  a  slave. ' '  While  Garrison,  in 
1835,  called  God  to  witness  that  the  abolitionists  were  not 
hostile  to  the  Constitution  4  of  the  United  States,  in  1843 
he  declared  "that  the  compact  which  exis.ts  between  the 
North  and  the  South  is  a  covenant  with  death  and  an 
agreement  with  Hell,  involving  both  parties  in  atrocious 
criminality,  and  should  be  immediately  annulled."  There 
still  remained  milder  abolitionists  like.  William  Jay  and 
Channing,  who  disavowed  the  extreme  theory.  The  cause 
of  abolition,  however,  continued  to  suffer,  for  it  had  not 
only  failed  to  interest  a  majority  of  the  people  in  the  North 
but  had  furnished  sufficient  radicalism  upon  which  the  pro- 
slavery  spokesmen  could  stir  up  the  country  with  threats 
of  disunion,  and  terrorize  the  gradual  emancipationists  in 
the  South. 

4  See  the  appeal  of  a  Southern  matron  in  the  Appendix. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SLAVERY   AND   THE    CONSTITUTION 

DURING  these  years,  important  constitutional  questions 
grew  out  of  the  encroachment  of  slavery  and  its  haughty 
pretension  to  national  precedence.  The  abolitionists  had, 
by  1830,  become  unusually  aggressive  and  were  organizing 
throughout  the  country  to  make  a  bold  at-  The  right  of 
tack  on  the  institution.  They  were  then  petition, 
presenting  to  the  State  legislatures  and  Congress  various 
petitions  asking,  among  other  things,  for  the  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  These  petitions  at  first 
were  received  and  then  refused  favorabje  consideration. 
They  had  in  the  course  of  time  been  more  easily  disposed 
of  by  merely  being  referred  to  a  committee  which  permitted 
them  to  die  a  natural  death.  Upon  the  occasion,  however, 
of  a  petition  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  long  known  as  the 
only  spokesman  in  behalf  of  free  speech  in  Congress,  the 
House  voted  to  refuse  such  petitioners  a  hearing.  This 
implied  that  a  reasonable  portion  of  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  were  denied  the  right  of  petition  j0hn  Quincy 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Adams. 
States.1  Adams  contended  that  these  petitions  must  be 
received,  heard,  and  referred  to  a  committee,  but  when,  he 

i  John  W.  Burgess,  Middle  Period,  Chs.  IV,  X,  XI,  XIII,  XVIII, 
XX;  J.  B.  McMaster,  History  of  the  United  States,  VIII,  pp.  473- 
521,  438-512;  James  Schouler,  History  of  the  United  States,  V,  389- 
433;  T.  C.  Smith,  Parties  and  Slavery,  passim;  James  F.  Rhodes, 
History  of  the  United  States,  III,  IV,  V,  VI;  William  MacDonald, 
Select  Statutes  I,  343,  365-372,  385-300,  397-454;  II,  35-38,  42-43,  113; 
A.  B.  Hart,  American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,  III,  574-655; 
IV,  122-192. 

195 


196 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


insisted  that  there  should  be  a  report  from  the'  committee 
and  a  vote  upon  that  report  it  looked  too  much  like  an 
insult  from  the  antislavery  party.  He  was,  therefore,  cen 
sured  by  the  proslavery  element  in  the  House.2 

It  is  well  to  keep  in  mind,  however,  that  Adams  was 
not  an  antislavery  man.  His  career  had  shown  proslavery 
tendencies.3  In  the  Senate,  in  1807,  when  the  prohibition  of 
The  record  the  slave  trade  was  brought  before  that  body, 
of  Adams.  j^  Voted  against  the  measure.  As  a  member 
of  the  mission  negotiating  the  treaty  with  Great  Britain, 

by  which  the  War  of  1812 
was  closed,  he  demanded 
compensation  for  slaves 
who  had  been  carried 
away  from  their  masters 
by  the  British  Army. 
During  his  incumbency  as 
Secretary  of  State  he  was 
unfriendly  to  the  proposal 
of  Great  Britain  for  a 
slave  trade  treaty  in  the 
interest  of  the  Africans, 
and  as  President  he  mani 
fested  no  particular  inter 
est  in  the  bondmen. 
Throughout  his  struggle 
for  the  right  of  petition  in  Congress,  therefore,  he  was  in 
terested,  not  in  the  work  of  abolitionists  but  in  defending 
the  right  of  the  people  of  his  section  to  free  speech. 

"When  the  House,  in  1835,  tabled  an  antislavery  petition 
presented  by  John  Quincy  Adams,  Henry  A.  Wise  of  Vir- 

2  John  W.  Burgess,  The  Middle  Period;  A.  B.  Hart,  Slavery  and 
Abolition;  and  Herman  von  Hoist,  Constitutional  and  Political  His 
tory  of  the  United  States. 

3  See  the  speech  of  John  Quincy  Adams  quoted  in  the  Appendix. 


JOHN   QUINCY   ADAMS,  the   cham 
pion   of   free   speech 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution  197 

ginia  took  occasion  to  remark:  "Sir,  slavery  interwoven 
with  our  very  political  institution  is  guaranteed  by  our  Con 
stitution,  and  its  consequences  must  be  borne  Henry  A. 
by  our  northern  brethren  as  resulting  from  Wise, 
our  system  of  government,  and  they  cannot  attack  the 
institution  of  slavery  without  attacking  the  institutions  of 
the  country,  our  safety  and  welfare."  In  December  of 
that  same  year  Slade  of  Vermont  took  occasion  to  remark 
that  as  a  constitutional  right  an  abolition  petition  should 
be  printed,  and  that  Congress  had  power  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia.  He  believed,  moreover,  that 
the  progress  of  abolition  must  be  necessary  to  preserve  the 
balance  of  the  situation  or,  rather,  to  restore  it.  When  a 
few  days  later  two  other  such  petitions  were  presented  by 
Morris  of  Ohio  and  Buchanan  of  Pennsylvania,  John  C. 
Calhoun  declared  such  a  memorial  "a  foul  slander  on 
nearly  one-half  of  the  States  of  the  Union,"  and  urged 
"that  a  stop  be  put  to  that  agitation  which  had  prevailed 
in  so  large  a  section  of  the  country  and  which,  unless 
checked,  would  endanger  the  extension  of  the  Union. ' '  Con 
gress  did  not  grant  the  desire  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  but  did 
vote  to  reject  the  prayer  of  the  petition. 

Southern  members  immediately  thereafter  secured  a  spe 
cial  "gag  rule"  that  all  petitions,  memorials,  resolutions, 
propositions  or  papers  relating  in  any  way  or  to  any  extent 
whatever  to  the  subject  of  slavery  or  the  "Gag  Rule." 
abolition  of  slavery  should  without  being  either  printed  or 
referred  be  laid  upon  the  table  and  that  no  further  action 
whatever  should  be  had  thereon.  The  proslavery  advocates 
had  taken  the  advanced  position  that  Congress  could  not 
legislate  on  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  that 
the  wishes  of  the  slave  States  bordering  on  the  District  of 
Columbia  took  precedence  over  the  power  of  Congress  to 
legislate  for  the  District,  although  the  Constitution  provides 
that  Congress  shall  make  no  law  abridging  the  freedom  of 


198  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

speech  or  the  rights  of  the  people  peaceably  to  assemble  or 
to  petition  the  government  for  the  redress  of  grievances. 
Adams,  therefore,  held  the  resolution  to  be  a  direct  viola 
tion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  the  rules 
of  the  House  and  of  the  rights  of  his  constituents. 

A  new  stage  in  the  discussion  of  the  right  of  petition 
in  Congress  was  reached  when,  in  1837,  there  were  pre 
sented  resolutions  from  Vermont  legislature  praying  that 
A  petition  slavery  be  abolished  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
from  a  State.  ^a  j±s  jn  accordance  with  the  southern  idea 
of  State  rights,  no  State  could  be  questioned  in  presenting 
any  petition  to  Congress,  although  citizens  might  be  re 
strained  therefrom,  Rhett  of  South  Carolina  summoned  to 
his  support  his  southern  coworkers  to  devise  a  plan  for 
peaceably  dissolving  the  Union.  They  finally  agreed,  how 
ever,  to  undertake  the  enactment  of  a  law  providing  for  a 
more  successful  "gag  rule,"  which  declared  it  "the  solemn 
duty  of  the  government  to  resist  all  attempts  by  one  portion 
to  use  it  as  an  instrument  to  attack  the  democratic  institu- 
x-  tions  of  another. ' ' 

At  this  time  Henry  Clay  and  Daniel  Webster,  two  of 
the  weakest  men  in  this  country,  were  dodging  the  slavery 
question,  although  they  saw  the  encroachment  of  the  slave 
power  upon  the  rights  guaranteed  the  individual  in  the 
Webster  and  Constitution.  Henry  Clay,  who  declared  that 
Olay-  he  was  not  a  friend  of  slavery,  preferring 

rather  freedom  for  all  men,  nevertheless  considered  the 
petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  "a  great  practical  in 
convenience  and  annoyance,"  from  which  he  hoped  the 
people  in  the  North  would  desist.  In  1830  Daniel  Webster 
considered  domestic  slavery  one  of  the  greatest  evils,  both 
moral  and  political.  In  1836  he  felt  that  it  was  the  duty 
of  Congress  to  take  care  that  the  authority  of  this  govern 
ment  was  not  brought  to  bear  upon  slavery  by  any  indirect 
interference.  He  later  announced  that  as  to  slavery  he 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution 


199 


Calhoun,  the 
pro  slavery 
leader. 


would  do  nothing  to  favor  or  encourage  its  further  exten 
sion.  Yet  with  regard  to  abolition  he  felt  that  it  had  taken 
such  strong  hold  on  the  consciences  of  men  that,  if  it  were 
coerced  into  silence,  he  knew  nothing  even  in  the  Constitu 
tion  or  in  the  Union  itself  which  would  not  be  endangered 
by  the  explosion  which  might  follow.  Hoping  to  become 
president,  he  later  tended  to  become  neutral,  and  bartered 

his  birthright  by  an  un 
successful  attempt  t  o 
swallow  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  of  1850. 

Growing  bolder  from 
year  to  year,  the  South 
during  this 
period  fin 
ally  became 

solidly  organized  under 
the  leadership  of  John 
C.  Calhoun,  who  had  de 
parted  from  his  early 
position  of  nationalism 
to  defend  the  institution 
of  slavery.  In  1836  he 
boldly  declared  that 
"Congress  has  no  legiti- 
n^ate  jurisdiction  over 

the  subject  of  slavery  either  in  the  District  of  Colum 
bia  or  elsewhere. "  4  He  believed,  that  the  abolitionists 
had  no  right  to  discuss  slavery  at  all,  that  Congress  should 
pass  affirmative  laws  for  the  protection  of  slaveholders 
against  abolition  by  mail  and  that  the  Northern  States 
should  be  prohibited  from  engaging  in  the  agitation.  He 
insisted  that  "the  conflicting  elements  would  burst  the 
Union  asunder,  powerful  as  are  the  links  that  hold  it  to- 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 


See  Appendix  for  J.  II.  Gidd.ings's  attack,  on  this  policy. 


200 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


to 


gether.  Abolition  and  the  Union  cannot  coexist ;  come  what 
will,  should  it  cost  every  drop  of  blood  and  every  cent  of 
property,  we  must  defend  ourselves." 

As  the  State  of  Texas,  developed  under  direction  of  pro- 
slavery  men  led  by  Samuel  Austin  and  Samuel  Houston, 
became  an  independent  slaveholding  section  desiring  an- 
The  Texas  nexation  to  the  Union,  Calhoun  found  for  the 
question.  South  a  safety  valve  in  championing  the  de 
sirable  policy  of  expansion.  This  extension  of  our  territory 
, „  could  not  be  easily  de 
feated,  although  the  pur 
pose  was  to  secure  slave 
territory.  Joshua  R.  Gid- 
dings,  the  first  militant 
abolition  member  of  Con 
gress,  however,  showed  in 
a  speech  attacking  slav 
ery,  in  1841,  exactly  how 
the  admission  of  Texas 
would  increase  the  power 
of  the  South  and  effect  the 
economic  history  of  the 
whole  country.5 

Many  constitutional  dif 
ficulties  were  encountered 
after  some  of  the  States 
had  abolished  slavery.  The 
South  continued  to  have  trouble  with  fugitives  escaping 
The  return  from  its  ports.  It  was  always  easy,  moreover, 
of  fugitives.  for  a  few  s}aves  to  arrange  with  the  Negro 
cooks  and  stewards  on  vessels  to  conceal  them  as  cargo  and 
deliver  them  to  some  agent  of  the  Underground  Railroad  on 
arriving  in  the  North.  In  1837  the  schooner  Susan,  sailing 
from  Georgia,  permitted  a  Negro  stowaway  to  escape  on 

6  See  Giddings's  speech  in  the  Appendix. 


JOSHUA  R.  GIDDINGS 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution 


FRIENDS  OF  THE  FUGITIVES 

JOHN  NEEDLES  ABIGAIL  GOODWIN 

GRACE  ANXE  LEWIS  ])ANIEL  CIBBOXS 


202 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


reaching  a  port  in  Maine.  The  State  of  Georgia  preferred 
charges  against  the  officers  of  the  ship  and  undertook  to  take 
them  into  custody,  but  the  Governor  of  Maine  refused  to 
honor  the  requisition  on  the  grounds  that  they  had  left 
Georgia  before  they  were  charged  with  the  crime.  Three 

sailors  coming  into  New 
York  with  the  slave  they 
helped  to  escape  from  Nor 
folk  in  1839,  were  simi 
larly  protected  by  Gover 
nor  William  H.  Seward, 
who  despised  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  This 
caused  a  prolonged  contro 
versy  between  the  chief  ex 
ecutives  of  the  two  States 
and  the  expression  of  much 
bitter  feeling  on  both  sides. 
Virginia  finally  passed  a 
law  requiring  the  inspec 
tion  of  all  vessels  bound 
for  New  York.  Missis 
sippi,  taking  up  her  cause, 
proposed  "to  unite  with 
other  States  in  any  measure  of  resistance  or  redress." 
Because  of  the  disturbances  resulting  from  the  Negro 
insurrection  in  1822,  South  Carolina  passed  certain  ' '  Negro 
Seamen  Acts"  requiring  all  Negroes  on  vessels  to  go  to  jail 
Seamen  on  arriving  in  port  and  to  remain  there  until 

Acts-  their  vessels  set  sail  again.     These  acts  were 

earnestly  protested  against  by  Northern  States  and  by  Eng 
land,  all  of  which  had  constant  commercial  intercourse 
with  South  Carolina.  The  measures  were  relaxed  with  ref 
erence  to  England,  but  with  respect  to  the  Northern  States 
they  continued  as  law,  Thinking  that  it  would  be  advisable 


WILLIAM  H.  SEWAED 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution  203 

to  make  a  test  case  of  this  legislation,  antislavery  members 
of  the  Massachusetts  legislature  sent  Samuel  Hoar  to  inter 
cede  in  behalf  of  a  Negro  thus  deprived  of  his  rights  in  that 
State.  Upon  arrival  Hoar  was  notified  that  his  life 
was  in  danger  for  the  reason  that  he  was  ' '  an  agent  coming- 
in  not  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  but  as  an  emissary 
of  a  foreign  government  hostile  to  the  domestic  institutions 
and  with  the  sole  purpose  of  subverting  its  internal  policy. ' ' 

The  South  undertook  also  to  indict  as  criminals  against 
the  laws  of  the  States  persons  who,  although  they  did  not 
come  within  the  limits  of  the  States,  had  by  way  of  mail 
or  message  incited  insurrection  or  aided  slaves  Attacks  on 
to  escape  from  their  masters.  William  Lago,  slavery, 
a  free  Negro,  was  thus  indicted  in  Kentucky.  The 
Supreme  Court  decided  that  the  governor  of  the  State 
had  a  moral  right  to  surrender  Lago,  but  that  the  Federal 
Government  had  no  power  to  compel  him  to  do  so.  Joseph 
P.  Mahan,  a  Methodist  minister  of  Brown  County,  Ohio, 
was  indicted  by  a  grand  jury  of  Kentucky  for  having 
aided  the  escape  of  certain  slaves.  Upon  receiving  a  requi 
sition  from  the  Governor  of  Kentucky,  the  Governor  of 
Ohio  issued  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of  the  minister.  Not 
long  after,  however,  the  Governor  of  Ohio  became  con 
vinced  that  the  warrant  had  been  issued  without  authority 
because  Mahan  had  never  been  in  Kentucky.  The  grand 
jury  of  Tuscaloosa  County  thus  indicted  R.  G.  Williams  of 
New  York  in  1835,  and  the  chief  executive  called  upon  Gov 
ernor  Marcy  of  New  York  to  surrender  him.  The  requi 
sition  was  refused  for  the  reason  that  Marcy  could  not  see 
how  a  man  could  be  guilty  of  a  crime  in  Alabama  when  he 
had  never  been  there.  Rewards  were  offered  for  abolition 
ists  like  Arthur  Tappan,  and  the  State  of  Georgia  appro 
priated  $5,000  as  a  reward  for  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  the 
editor  of  the  Liberator. 

This  same   assumption   of   authority   in   the   defense   of 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


PROMOTERS  OF  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD 
WILLIAM  WRIGHT  E.  F.  PENNYPACKER 

SAMUEL  RHOADS 
J.  M.  McKiM  JOHN  HEM  AN 

JOHN  HENRY  HILL 
WM.  H.  FUBXISS  BARTHOLOMEW  FUSSELL 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution  205 

slavery  extended  also  to  the  search  of  the  mails  for  incen 
diary  matter  sent  by  the  abolitionists  to  slaves  and  their 
sympathizers  in  the  South.  Because  of  the  Searching 
annoyance  from  which  the  South  had  suffered  tne  mails- 
therefrom,  Calhoun  introduced,  in  1836,  a  bill  providing 
that  mail  matter  other  than  letters  touching  the  subject 
of  slavery  should  not  be  delivered  in  any  State  prohibiting 
the  circulation  of  such  matter.  Congress,  however,  could 
not  pass  such  a  law,  since  many  States  had  not  prohibited 
the  circulation  of  such  matter.  The  matter  was  settled 
by  a  general  search  of  the  mails  throughout  the  South,  just 
as  is  done  today  in  the  time  of  war. 

There  arose  also  the  question  as  to  what  effect  on  the 
status  of  the  slave  would  his  removal  to  a  free  State  have 
and  if,  according  to  the  law  of  that  State  it  worked  his 
manumission,  would  he  be  free  on  his  return  Removal  to 
to  the  slave  State  from  which  he  went.  In  a  free  State. 
Massachusetts  slavery  was  forbidden  for  any  cause,  whereas 
in  Missouri  and  Louisiana  it  was  held  that  a  freedman  vol 
untarily  returning  to  his  master  reverted  to  slavery.  In 
diana  gave  the  master  the  right  of  transit  with  his  slaves  in 
that  State.  In  Pennsylvania,  however,  it  was  not  allowed. 
When  John  H.  Wheeler  of  North  Carolina  passed  through 
that  State  on  his  way  to  New  York,  from  which  he  was  to 
proceed  to  Nicaragua,  Passmore  Williamson  informed 
Jane  Johnson,  the  attending  servant,  that  she  was  free 
under  the  laws  of  that  State,  and  the  courts  upheld  that 
opinion. 

During  the  darkest  days  of  slavery  when  many  of  them 
escaped  to  the  Northern  States,  however,  in  spite  of  senti 
ment  to  the  contrary,  masters  hunted  them  down  in  the 
North,  demanding  of  the  local  courts  their  Personal 
return  to  slavery.  The  local  courts  often  re-  Liberty  Laws, 
fused  to  carry  out  these  mandates,  and  certain  Northern 
States  passed  personal  liberty  laws  to  impede  these  efforts 


206  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

by  .granting  alleged  fugitives  a  trial  by  jury.  In  Vermont 
and  New  York  local  officials  were  deprived  of  jurisdiction 
in  such  cases,  and  State  attorneys  were  required  to  act  as 
legal  advisers  for  Negroes  thus  accused.  Ohio,  however, 
egged  on  by  the  mob  cruelly  treating  free  Negroes  migrating 
from  the  South  to  that  State,  enacted  in  1839  a  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  more  drastic  than  the  Federal  measure  of  1793. 
Some  excitement  was  caused  in  1837,  however,  when  a 
Kentucky  slave,  Matilda,  who,  without  being  asked  any 
questions,  entered  the  service  of  James  G.  Birney  at  Cin 
cinnati,  was  claimed  and  surrendered  as  a  fugitive.  In  1840 
John  Van  Zandt  was,  despite  the  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court  by  such  valuable  counsellors  as  Salmon  P.  Chase  and 
William  H.  Seward,  fined  $1,200  because  he  rescued  one  of 
nine  slaves  who  had  escaped  to  the  other  side  of  the  Ohio 
River. 

An  epoch  was  reached  in  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  however,  when  Edward  Prigg  of  Maryland  un 
dertook  to  return  from  Pennsylvania  the  fugitive  Margaret 
The  Prigg  Morgan.  Because  Prigg  seized  her  without 
Case>  first  instituting  proceedings  in  the  courts  of 

the  State  he  was  arrested  for  violating  the  Pennsylvania 
statute  against  kidnapping.  Upon  appealing  to  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  however,  the  opinion  was  given  that 
the  owner  had  a  right  to  recover  the  slave  but  that  the 
act  of  1793  could  not  be  construed  as  making  its  execution 
an  obligation  of  the  State  officials.  Following  this  decision 
John  Shaw  of  Boston  refused  not  long  thereafter  to  grant 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  accordance  with  the  State  per 
sonal  liberty  law  to  remove  Latimer,  a  fugitive,  from  cus- 
The  Lattmer  tody  of  the  Federal  authorities.  There  fol- 
Case«  lowed  such  a  storm  of  protest,  however,  such 

an  array  of  abolitionists  against  the  authorities  thus  admin 
istering  the  law,  that  an  observer  of  the  trend  of  the  times 
could  easily  see  that  feeling  was  running  too  high  to  calm 


Slavery  and  the  Constitution  207 

the  people  of  the  North  who  were  then  openly  resisting  the 
execution  of  Federal  law.  The  southern  people  bore 
it  as  a  grievance,  therefore,  that  the  enemies  of  their  basic 
institution  could  by  the  application  of  personal  liberty  laws 
deprive  them  of  their  property.  They  urged,  therefore, 
the  enactment  of  a  more  stringent  measure  which  eventually 
culminated  in  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of 
1850. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  IRREPRESSIBLE  CONFLICT 

SLAVERY  became  more  troublesome  for  the  United  States 
at  home  when  it  involved  the  country  in  entanglements 
abroad.  The  British  Government  gradually  emancipated 
International  **&  slaves  in  the  colonies  after  1833,  and  there 
entangle-  was  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  slaves  and  their 
sympathizers  to  seek  refuge  in  those  parts 
when  carried  on  the  high  seas.  For  years  very  little  effort 
had  been  made  to  stop  the  numerous  violations  of  the  slave 
trade,  despite  the  fact  that  European  governments  had 
repeatedly  called  upon  the  United  States  to  unite  with  them 
to  abolish  this  traffic  in  men.  When  the  ship  Comet,  in  1831, 
carrying  slaves,  and  bound  for  the  United  States,  was 
wrecked  at  the  Bahamas,  they  were  brought  ashore  and 
set  free  on  the  ground  that  the  British  Government  did  not 
recognize  slavery  on  the  high  seas.  Similar  instances  oc 
curred  in  the  case  of  the  Encomium  in  1835,  and  the  Enter 
prise  and  the  Hermosa  in  1840.  The  United  States  Gov 
ernment  promptly  demanded  an  indemnity,  contending 
Slavery  on  that  the  accidental  presence  of  the  vessels  in 
the  high  seas.  British  waters  did  not  interfere  with  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave ;  but,  doubtless  for  the  reason 
that  emancipation  was  not  at  that  time  completed  in  the 
West  Indies,  Great  Britain  granted  the  United  States,  in 
1840,  an  indemnity  of  $115,000  for  the  slaves  of  the  Comet 
and  Encomium,  but  nothing  was  granted  for  the  others. 

208 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict 


209 


The  only  consolation  our  government  received  was  to  declare 
it  a  violation  of  international  law  for  which  no  redress 
could  be  obtained. 

There  took  place,  moreover,  a  number  of  mutinies  of 
slaves  on  the  high  seas,  which,  the  proslavery  element  be 
lieved,  required  intervention  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States.  One  of  the  most  significant  of  these  L'Amistad. 
cases  was  that  of  the  Amistad.  There  were  on  board  the 
schooner  fifty-four  Negroes  who  were  being  carried  coast 
wise  from  Havana  to  Neu- 
vitas  on  the  island  of  Cuba 
in  1839.  Under  the  leader 
ship  of  the  African,  Joseph 
Cinque,  the  Negroes  mur 
dered  the  passengers  and 
the  crew  with  the  excep 
tion  of  two  Spaniards 
spared  to  steer  the  vessel 
toward  freedom.  After 
roaming  on  the  high  seas 
a  few  days,  the  vessel  came 
ashore  for  water  and  pro 
visions  at  Culloden  Point 
on  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island,  and  was  espied  and 
taken  possession  of  a  short 

while    thereafter    by    Cap- 

,    .      ^    ^  n,  ,,      TT   ..    ,  JOSEPH  CINQUE 

tarn  Gedney  of  the  United 

States  Navy.  Joseph  Cinque,  the  leader,  undertook  to  es 
cape,  but  finally  yielded.  The  captives  were  then  brought 
before  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  in  Connecticut,  pre 
sided  over  by  Andrew  T.  Judson.  As  the  proceedings 
lasted  for  some  months,  Cinque  and  his  companions  were 
turned  over  to  certain  abolition  teachers,  who  so  thoroughly 
grounded  him  in  the  fundamentals  of  education  that  he 


210 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


developed  into  a  man  of  considerable  intelligence,  show 
ing  natural  ability  as  an  orator.  The  outcome  of  the  case 
was  that  although  Van  Buren  was  ready  to  remand  them, 
the  Supreme  Court  on  appeal  decided  that  the  Negroes 
being  free  when  they  left  Havana  were  violating  no  law 
in  killing  those  trying  to  enslave  them.  They  were  there 
fore  set  free. 

The  mutiny  of  the  slaves  on  the  Creole,  en  route  from 
Richmond  to  New  Orleans,  in  1841,  gave  rise  to  another 
Congressional  inquiry  in  which 
the  right  of  the  United  States  to 
exercise  authority  over  slaves  on 
the  high  seas  was  questioned. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Madison 
Washington,  who  had  made  his 
The  Creole  escape  from  slavery 
Case.  jn  Yirginia  to  Can 

ada,  but  on  returning  to  rescue 
his  wife  had  been  captured  and 
sent  South  for  sale,  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  slaves  overpow 
ered  the  officers  of  the  vessel, 
killed  one,  and  directed  the  ship 

to  the  British  port  Nassau,  where  CHARLES  SUMNER  a  fear 
less  advocate  of  democracy 
they  were  held  to  await  instruc 
tions  from  the  British  government.  When  proslavery  men 
in  Congress  sought  to  have  these  Negroes  returned  to  their 
masters  on  the  ground  that  they  were  legally  held  at  the 
time  of  their  departure,  Charles  Sumner  *  insisted  that  the 
slaves  became  free  when  taken,  by  the  voluntary  action  of 
their  owners,  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  slave  States. 
On  the  other  hand,  Daniel  Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State, 
contended  that  inasmuch  as  slaves  were  recognized  as  prop 
erty  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  where  slavery 

1  See  Appendix  for  Simmer's  ideas. 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict  211 

existed,  their  presence  on  the  high  seas  did  not  effect  a 
change  in  their  status.  The  matter  between  Great  Britain 
was  drawn  out  into  ten  years  of  negotiations  and  was  finally 
settled  in  1853  by  arbitration  with  the  provision  that  the 
British  Government  should  pay  an  indemnity  of  $110,000 
for  having  permitted  these  Negroes  to  go  free. 

To  combat  this  view  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  an  antislavery 
member  of  Congress,  offered  in  connection  with  this  case  in 
1842  resolutions  to  the  effect  that '  *  slavery,  being  an  abridg 
ment  of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  can  exist  only  by  force 
or  positive  municipal  law."2     Botts  of  Vir-     Giddings' 
ginia  thereupon  secured  the  adoption  of  a  res-     Resolution, 
olution  to  the  effect  that  "this  House  hold  the  conduct  of 
said  member  altogether  unwarranted  and  unwarrantable, 
and  deserving  the  severe  condemnation  of  the  people  of  this 
country  and  of  this  body  in  particular."     Giddings  was, 

2  Giddings'  resolutions  were: 

1.  Resolved,  That,  prior  to  the  adoption  of  our  Federal  Consti 
tution  each  of  the  several  States  composing  this  Union  exercised  full 
and  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  own 
territory,   and   possessed    full   power   to   continue   or   abolish    it   at 
pleasure. 

2.  Resolved,     That,  by  adopting  the  Constitution,  no  part  of  the 
aforesaid  powers  were  delegated  to  the  Federal  Government,  but  were 
reserved  by  and  still  pertain  to  each  of  the  several  States. 

3.  Resolved,     That,  by  the  8th  section  of  the   1st  article  of  the 
Constitution,  each  of  the  several  States  surrendered  to  the  Federal 
Government    all    jurisdiction    over    the    subjects    of    commerce    and 
navigation  upon  the  high  seas. 

4.  Resolved,  That  Slavery,  being  an  abridgement  of  the  natural 
right  of  man,  can  exist  only  by  force  of  positive  municipal  law,  and 
is  necessarily  confined  to  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  power 
creating  it. 

5.  Resolved,  That  when  a  ship  belonging  to  the  citizens  of  any 
State  enters  upon  the  high   seas,  the  persons  on  board  cease  to  be 
subject  to  the  slave  laws  of  sucli  State,  and  therefore,  are  governed 
in  their  relations  to  each  other  by,  and  are  amenable  to,  the  laws 
of  the  United  States. 

6.  Resolved,  That  when  the  brig  Creole,  on  her  late  passage  for 
New  Orleans,  left  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  Virginia,  the  slave 
laws  of  that  State  ceased  to  have  jurisdiction  over  the  persons  on 


212  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

therefore,  twice  censured  by  the  proslavery  Congress.  To 
show  the  attachment  of  his  district  to  free  institutions, 
however,  he  resigned  and  appealed  to  his  constituents  in 
the  Western  Reserve,  who  immediately  returned  him  that 
he  might  introduce  these  resolutions  again. 

The  interpretation  of  the  constitution  was  again  appealed 
to  when,  in  the  development  of  the  proslavery  policy  which 
dominated  this  country  up  to  the  Civil  War,  the  South 
The  Wilmot  actually  forced  the  country  into  a  struggle 
Proviso.  Wjtj1  ]y[exico  ^o  acquire  territory  for  the  ex 

tension  of  slavery.  A  rather  serious  question  arose  when 
an  act  appropriating  money  for  the  purchase  of  territory 
from  Mexico  was  blocked  by  David  Wilmot 's  amendment 
providing  that  in  the  territory  to  be  thus  acquired  slavery 
should  be  forever  prohibited.  This  amendment  caused  much 
trouble  years  thereafter;  for,  introduced  from  session  to 

board  said  brig,  and  such  persons  became  amenable  only  to  the  laws 
of  the  United  States. 

7.  Resolved,   That   the   persons    on   board   the   said    ship,    in    re 
suming  their  natural  rights  of  personal  liberty,  violated  no  law  of 
the  United  States,  and  are  incompatible  with  our  national  honor. 

8.  Resolved,  That  all  attempts  to  regain  possession  of  or  to  re- 
enslave  said  persons  are  unauthorized  by  the  Constitution  or  laws 
of  the  United  States,  and  are  incompatible  with  our  national  honor. 

9.  Resolved,  That,  all   attempts  to   exert   our   national   influence 
in  favor  of  the  coastwise  slave  trade,  or  to  place  this  nation  in  the 
attitude   of   maintaining   a   "commerce   in   human   beings,"   are   sub 
versive  of  the  rights  and  injurious  to  the  feelings  of  the  free  States, 
are  unauthorized  by  the  Constitution,  and  prejudicial  to  our  national 
character. 

See  Text  of  the  resolutions  in  House  Journal,  27th  Con.,  2d  Sess. ; 
for  the  resolution  of  censure,  ib.,  p.  580.  For  the  discussions  see  the 
Cong.  Globe,  or  Benton's  Abridgment,  XIV.  The  diplomatic  corre 
spondence  regarding  the  Creole  is  in  the  House  Exec.  Doc.  2,  27th 
Cong.,  3d  Sess.,  pp.  114-123,  and  Senate  Doc.  1,  pp.  116-125.  See  also 
von  Hoist's  United  States,  II,  479-486;  J.  Q.  Adams's  Memoirs, .XI, 
113-115;  Wilson's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,  I,  Chap.  31; 
Benton's  Thirty  Years'  View,  II,  Chap.  98. 

The  work  of  this  statesman  is  treated  in  Byron  R.  Long's 
Joshua  R.  Giddings,  A  Champion  of  Political  Freedom  and  H 
George  W.  Julians'  Life  of  Joshua  R.  Giddings.  See  also  J.  B 
Moore's  International  Arbitrations,  I,  417. 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict  213 

session,  it  became  the  nemesis  of  the  proslavery  party  in 
quest  of  new  territory.  The  proviso  evoked  from  the  pro- 
slavery  advocates  the  claim  that  Congress  had  no  right  to 
legislate  on  this  question  and  that  the  question  of  slavery 
should  be  decided  by  those  persons  who  would  settle  in 
the  said  territory. 

About  the  year  1850,  when  the  antislavery  agitation  was 
at  its  height  and  the  various  laws  of  interest  to  the  many 
contending  elements  emerged  in  the  form  of  the  Omnibus 
Bill,  several  constitutional  questions  of  importance  were 
raised.  There  came  up  the  question  of  the  The  crisis 
admission  of  California,  the  paying  of  certain  of  185°- 
Texas  claims,  the  organization  of  territory  acquired  from 
Mexico,  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  the  provision  for  a  more  effective  fugitive 
slave  law.  The  friends  of  slavery  objected  to  having  the 
State  of  California  admitted  without  passing  through  the 
territorial  probation  period,  and  did  not  agree  with  Henry 
Clay,  who  contended  that  slavery  in  that  State  illegally 
existed.  They  believed  that  slavery  existed  everywhere 
unless  it  had  been  positively  prohibited  by  law.  Many 
northerners  objected  to  paying  claims  incurred  by  the 
acquisition  of  slave  territory  and  were  not  disposed  to 
hurry  up  with  the  organization  of  slave  States  to  be  formed 
therefrom.3  As  to  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  District 
of  Columbia,  the  southerners  were  still  of  the  opinion  that 
the  Constitution  had  not  given  Congress  any  power  to  legis 
late  regarding  slavery.  On  the  other  hand,  the  friends  of 
freedom  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  proposed  fugitive  slave 
law  intended  to  impress  into  the  service  of  slave-catching 
men  who  had  no  inclination  to  perform  such  a  task,  that  it 
interfered  with  a  man's  rights  as  a  citizen,  and  that  it  was 
unconstitutional  because  it  did  not  guarantee  the  suspects 
any  right  of  trial  by  jury  and  did  not  permit  a  fugitive  to 

s  This  is  well  expressed  by  Giddings's  speech  in  the  Appendix. 


214 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


testify  in  his  own  behalf.  In  the  midst  of  so  many  conflict 
ing  efforts  to  bring  about  a  compromise  between  two  mili 
tant  sections,  far-sighted  men  like  William  H.  Seward  4  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  saw  no  hope  for  peace  in  the  Omnibus 
Bill. 

A  more  interesting  constitutional  question  arose  some 
years  later  when  out  of 
the  territory  in  the  West 
it  was  proposed  to  organize 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  with 
out  regard  to  slavery.  Ste 
phen  A.  Douglas,  the  cham 
pion  of  this  movement, 
seemed  to  stultify  him- 

The  Kansas-  self  in  trving 
Nebraska  to  harmonize 
Question.  hig  theory  rf 

squatter  sovereignty  with 
that  of  the  freedom  of  the 
people  in  determining  for 
themselves  how  the  new 
commonwealth  should  come 
into  the  Union.  How 
Douglas  could  make  it  pos- 


HENEY 


a  champion 


sible  for  a  man  to  take  his 
slaves  wherever  he   would 

and  still  hold  them  as  goods  and  chattels,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  law  would  guarantee  to  the  people  in  a  new  com 
monwealth  when  framing  the  Constitution  the  right  to  de 
cide  for  themselves  whether  or  not  the  State  should  be 
free,  was  never  satisfactorily  explained  to  the  increasing 
number  of  antislavery  men. 

The  most  formidable  of  all  of  these  protagonists,  how 
ever,  was  not  among  the  first  to  appear.     He  was  a  back- 


4  See  Appendix  for  Seward's  Higher  Law. 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict  215 

woodsman  born  in  Kentucky  and  developed  to  manhood  in 
Indiana  and  Illinois.  As  a  rail-splitter  he  could  understand 
the  hardships  entailed  upon  those  compelled  Lincoln  on 
to  engage  in  drudgery.  When  a  young  man  slavery, 
he  went  on  a  flat  boat  on  a  trading  trip  to  New  Orleans.  On 
the  market  square  he  saw  human  beings  auctioned  off  like 
cattle,  and  being  deeply  impressed  with  the  evil  thereof  he 
said  to  himself  that  if  he  ever  had  a  chance  to  strike  slavery 
he  would  strike  it  and  would  strike  it  hard.  Some  years 
later,  when  Elijah  Lovejoy  was  killed  at  Alton,  Illinois,  by 
the  proslavery  leaders  because  of  his  diatribes  hurled  at 
the  bold  defenders  of  that  institution,  the  legislature  of 
the  State  passed  a  resolution  which  seemingly  condoned 
that  murder.  Thereupon  this  representative  joined  with 
Daniel  Stone  in  a  protest  to  the  effect  that  "they  believed 
that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice 
and  bad  policy. ' '  This  man  was  Abraham  Lincoln.5 

Against  all  temporizing  and  compromising  efforts  to 
placate  the  mad  proslavery  advocates,  Lincoln  persistently 
warned  his  fellow-countrymen.  He  early  saw  that  the 
country  had  by  its  continuation  of  the  policies  of  the  pro- 
slavery  party  decided  upon  a  fatal  course  of  winking  at  a 
terrible  evil.  ' '  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy, ' '  said  he, 
1 '  that  agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion,  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis 
shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  'A  house  divided 
against  itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  government 
cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the 
house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided. 
It  will  become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other.  Either  the 
opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it, 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief 
that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction ;  or  its  advo- 

s  See  Lincoln's  speech  in  the  Appendix. 


216  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

cates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful 
in  all  the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as 
South."6 

The  culmination  of  the  proslavery  discussion  was  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  This  was  the  case  of  a  Negro  who  had 
been  taken  from  the  slave  States  into  free  territory  a  second 
The  Dred  Scott  time,  when  he  instituted  proceedings  to  ob- 
Decision.  tain  his  freedom.  The  case  passed  through 

the  local  and  higher  courts  and  finally  came  before  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  which  decided  that  at 
that  time,  when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was 
adopted,  Negroes  were  not  regarded  as  citizens  of  this 
country  and  they  could  not,  therefore,  sue  as  such  in  the 
United  States  courts.  That  tribunal  then  had  no  jurisdic 
tion  in  such  a  case  and  it  was  dismissed.  This  was  to  say 
that  the  Negro,  so  far  as  the  United  States  Government 
was  concerned,  had  no  rights  that  the  white  man  should 
respect,  and  that  although  certain  sections  of  the  country  by 
regulations  were  generally  free,  any  part  of  the  country 
might  become  slave,  should  persons  owning  Negroes  choose 
to  settle  therein.  Slavery  was  therefore  national,  while 
freedom  was  sectional. 

Against  this  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  to  justify 
such  encroachment  upon  the  rights  of  the  individual,  the 
friends  of  freedom  persistently  protested.  Wendell  Phil- 
Increasing  Hps,  the  stanch  advocate  of  liberty,  equality, 
opposition.  an(j  fraternity,  saw  in  the  constitution  thus 
interpreted  such  an  inhuman  law  that  he  refused  to  seek 
election  to  Congress  because  he  could  not  conscientiously 
take  the  oath  to  support  it.  William  Henry  Seward,  then 
coming  forward  as  the  spokesman  of  those  who  dared  to 
engage  in  the  battle  for  the  rights  of  citizens  under  the 
constitution,  accepted  the  challenge  in  his  Impending 

e  Abraham  Lincoln,  Speeches  and  Debates  (New  York,  1907),  p.  36. 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict  217 

Crisis  and  Irrepressible  Conflict.7  Salmon  P.  Chase  and 
Charles  Sumner,  though  not  at  first  militant  abolitionists, 
had  reached  the  conclusion  that  slavery  would  have  to 
yield  ground  to  free  soil,  free  speech  and  free  men. 

The  slavery  debate  then  ceased  to  be  a  constitutional  ques 
tion  and  became  largely  political.  The  organization  of  the 
Republican  Party  in  1854,  and  its  all  but  successful  cam 
paign  in  1856  with  John  C.  Fremont  on  the  slavery  in 
platform  of  prohibiting  the  extension  of  slav-  Politics. 
ery,  made  this  question  the  dominant  thought  of  most 
forward-looking  men.  Here  we  see  the  agitation  for  the 
rights  of  man  connecting  opportunely  with  modern  eco 
nomic  movements  to  reduce  slave  labor  to  the  point  of  a 
death  struggle  with  free  labor.  Although  aware  of  the  fact 
that  the  civilized  world  had  proscribed  slavery,  the  South 
was  willing  to  remain  in  a  primitive  state  to  retain  it.  The 
North  was  determined  not  to  yield  any  more  ground  to  an 
institution  in  which  it  had  no  interest  and  against  which 
it  had  many  reasons  to  be  opposed.  Then  followed  the 
popularization  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  the  famous  debates 
of  Lincoln  and  Douglas,  the  division  of  the  truncated  Demo 
cratic  Party,  the  accession  of  northern  liberals  to  the  ranks 
of  the  Republicans,  and  the  triumph  of  the  Republican 
Party  in  1860. 

The  southern  States,  believing  that  their  last  chance  to 
maintain  slavery  in  the  Union  had  passed,  thereupon  se 
ceded  to  establish   a  confederate   government  in   keeping 
with  their  institutions.     South  Carolina  took    ij,^e  jj^st 
such   action  December  20,   1860,   and  before    stand  of  the 
Lincoln  had  been  inaugurated  the  following      out  * 
March  all  of  the  cotton  States  had  followed  her  example. 
Was  secession  constitutional?     James  Buchanan,  the  weak 
executive  then  finishing  his  term  as  President,  said  that 

7  See  Appendix  for  Seward's  thought  on  the  crisis. 


218 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


these  commonwealths  had  no  right  to  leave  the  Union,  but 
he  did  not  believe  that  he  had  any  constitutional  power  to 
interfere  with  their  going.  This  was  the  most  critical 
period  through  which  the  Union  had  passed,  and  persons 
who  had  for  some  years  observed  the  development  of  disin 
tegrating  forces  doubted  that  it  would  weather  the  storm. 
When  the  Federal  Constitution  was  framed  and  adopted 

I860 


50  TO  75  PER  CENT 


75  PER  CENT  AND  OVER 


THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  POPULATION  IN  1860 

By  permission   of  the   United  States  Bureau  of  the  Census 

few  persons  were  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  foundation 
for  a  durable  union  of  the  States  had  been  laid.  The  very 
The  nature  of  language  of  the  Constitution  itself  indicates 
the  Union.  that  a  consolidation  of  the  States  ratifying 
that  agreement  was  not  clear  in  the  minds  of  the  framers. 
In  the  course  of  time,  however,  the  country  developed  into 
a  Union,  the  majority  of  the  States  taking  the  position  that 
it  could  not  be  broken.  Some  States  were  in  doubt  as  to 
whether  a  State  could  secede  at  the  time  of  the  agitation 


The  Irrepressible  Conflict 


219 


of  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  which  culminated  in  the 
high  ground  taken  by  Virginia  and  Kentucky  in  their 
threatening  resolutions.  More  strength  for  the  Union  was 
evidenced  when  New  England,  because  of  its  dissatisfaction 
with  the  conduct  of  the  War  of  1812,  felt  disposed  to  make 
an  effort  at  secession.  The  Union  sentiment  was  much  more 
pronounced  at  the  time  of  the  nullification  of  the  efforts  of 
South  Carolina  in  1833,  indicating,  as  Benjamin  F.  Wade 

of  Ohio  boldly  asserted,  that 
there  was  little  chance  for  a 
State  to  leave  the  Union  of  its 
own  accord.8 

In  spite  of  this  nationalistic 
attitude,  however,  the  South  had 
become  so  much  attached  to  slav 
ery  and  the  North  so  far  re 
moved  from  it  that  this  insti-, 
tution  tended  so  to  Threats  of 
widen  the  breach  secession, 
that  to  carry  its  point  the  South 
for  three  decades  threatened 
the  country  with  secession.  Be 
fore  the  two  participants  in  this 
contest  lay  the  promising1  West. 
Each  was  making  an  effort  to  in 
vade  that  domain  to  establish  there  States  which  would  sup 
port  their  respective  claims.  As  a  free  society  expands 
much  more  rapidly  than  a  slave  community,  the  North  eas 
ily  outstripped  the  South  and  in  seeking  an  advantage  by 
preventing  the  expansion  of  slavery  in  the  interest  of  free 
labor,  it  forced  the  South  to  the  radical  position  of  under 
taking  secession.  These  threats  were  very  much  pro 
nounced  during  the  ardent  slavery  debates  of  1849  and  1850, 


BENJAMIN    F.   WADE,   the 
defier    of   the    Seces 
sionists 


8  See  Appendix  for  Wade's  speech. 


220 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


leaving  certain  sores  which  the  all-comprehending  compro 
mise  of  1850  failed  to  heal.  And  when  the  agitation  had 
seemingly  been  all  but  settled  by  these  arrangements,  the 
matter  broke  out  anew  in  the  effort  to  provide  a  govern 
ment  for  Kansas  and  Ne 
braska  and  in  the  struggle 
there  between  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  North  and 
South.  The  bloodshed  in 
Kansas  was  the  beginning 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  the 
raid  of  John  Brown  at 
Harpers  Ferry  in  1859 
was  but  another  event  of 
the  same  struggle.9  Al 
though  he  overestimated 
the  effect  of  his  exploits 
he  did  drive  home,  how 
ever,  the  fact  that  a  num 
ber  of  people  in  the  North 
had  thought  so  seriously 
about  slavery  as  to  en 
danger  their  lives  in  try 
ing  to  exterminate  the  institution.  It  made  the  country 
realize  that  something  would  have  to  be  done  to  bring 
the  matter  to  a  conclusion,  and  the  Civil  War  was  the 
crowning  event  of  this  long-drawn-out  movement. 


JOHN  BROWN 


9  See  the  last  words  of  John  Brown  in  the  Appendix. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   NEGRO   IN   THE   CIVIL  WAR 

WHEN  the  war  broke  out,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  openly  declared  that  it  was  not  his  purpose  to  inter 
fere  with  the  institutions  of  the  South,  meaning  of  course, 
that  he  had  no  desire  to  attack  slavery  in  those  Evading 
commonwealths  in  which  it  existed.  The  slavery. 
South,  on  the  other  hand,  anxious  to  win  favor  abroad  and 
knowing  how  it  would  harm  its  cause  in  foreign  countries 
to  have  it  said  that  it  had  undertaken  a  war  to  promote 
slavery,  declared  its  position  one  of  self-defense  to  maintain 
its  right  to  govern  itself  and  to  preserve  its  own  peculiar 
institutions.  Negroes,  therefore,  were  not  to  be  freed  and 
of  course  were  not  to  take  a  part  in  the  war,  as  it  was 
considered  a  struggle  between  white  men.  This  does  not 
mean,  however,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  had  lost  sight  of  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  elected  by  a  party  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  slavery,  nor  that  he  ceased  to  put  forth  efforts, 
whenever  possible,  to  check  the  institution  as  he  had  for 
merly  declared.  After  the  war  had  been  well  begun  and  it 
was  evident  that  such  efforts  as  the  peace  convention  could 
not  succeed,  Lincoln  took  up  with  the  border  States  the 
question  of  setting  the  example  of  freeing  the  Negroes  by  a 
process  of  gradual  emancipation.1 

i  J.  K.  Hosmer,  The  Appeal  to  Arms  and  his  Outcome  of  the  Civil 
War;  J.  W.  Burgess,  Civil  War  and  the  Constitution;  James  Ford 
Rhodes,  History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill;  J.  B.  McMaster, 
History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  473;  James  Schouler, 
History  of  the  United  States,  VI,  1861-1865,  passim;  William  Wells 
Brown,  The  Rising  Son,  341-381;  George  W.  Williams,  History  of 

221 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  223 

Before  the  war  had  proceeded  very  far,  however,  the 
Negroes  came  up  for  serious  consideration  because  of  the 
many  problems  which  developed  out  of  the  peculiar  situ 
ation  in  which  they  were.  In  the  first  place,  r^  jfegro 
there  were  in  the  North  free  Negroes  who  involved, 
were  anxious  to  do  their  share  in  defeating  the  purposes  of 
the  Confederate  States,  knowing  that  the  success  of  their 
cause  meant  the  perpetuation  of  slavery.  There  were  in 
the  North,  moreover,  white  men  who  were  of  the  opinion 
that  free  Negroes  should  share  a  part  of  the  burden  entailed 
by  waging  the  Civil  War.  Furthermore,  as  soon  as  the 
invading  Union  armies  crossed  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line 
into  the  South,  disturbing  the  plantation  system  and  driving 
the  masters  away  from  their  homes,  the  Negroes  were  left 
behind  to  constitute  a  problem  for  the  army.  There  arose 
the  question  as  to  what  was  the  status  of  such  Negroes. 
Nominally  they  were  slaves,  actually  they  were  free,  but 
there  was  no  law  to  settle  the  question.  A  few  slaves  who 
had  been  taken  over  by  the  Union  armies  from  persons  in 
rebellion  against  the  United  States,  were  confiscated  by 
virtue  of  the  legislation  providing  for  this  disposition  of 
such  property  of  the  Confederates.  Yet  there  were  Negroes 
who  did  not  wait  for  the  invading  armies  but,  when  their 
masters  had  gone  to  the  front  to  defend  the  South,  left 
their  homes  and  made  way  to  the  Union  camps.2 

The  first  effort  to  deal  with  such  slaves  was  made  by 
General  Butler  at  Fortress  Monroe  in  1861.    Butler's 
Such  slaves  as  escaped  into  his  camp  in  flight    contrabands, 
from  their  masters,  he  accepted  as  contrabands  of  war  on 
the  grounds  that  they  had  been  employed  in  assisting  the 

Negro  Troops  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  passim;  William  MacDon- 
ald,  Select  Statutes  of  United  States  History,  34-39;  and  A.  B.  Hart, 
American  History  Told  by  Contemporaries,  IV,  181-458. 

2  The  best  authority  on  the  Civil  War  is  James  Ford  Rhodes.  See 
his  History  of  the  United  States  from  the  Compromise  of  1850  to 
the  Final  Restoration  of  Home  Rule  in  tTfe  South;  Volumes  I-IV. 


224 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Confederate  armies  and  could  be  confiscated  in  the  same 
sense  that  one  would  take  over  other  supplies  of  the 
Confederates.  Mu'ch  discussion  was  aroused  by  the  action 
of  General  Butler,  and  there  was  doubt  as  to  whether  or  not 
it  would  be  supported  by  the  President.  This  plan,  how 
ever,  was  followed  by  General  Wood,  Butler's  successor, 
and  by  General  Banks  when  he  was  operating  in  New  Or 
leans.  General  Halleck,  while  operating  in  the  West,  at  first 


NEGROES  IN  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  CONFEDERATES 

excluded  slaves  from  the  camps,  as  did  also  General  Dix  in 
Virginia.  Some  generals,  like  General  McCook  and  General 
Johnson,  permitted  slave  hunters  to  come  into  their  lines 
and  reclaim  their  fugitive  slaves.  Later,  however,  General 
Halleck  seems  to  have  receded  from  his  early  position. 
General  Grant  refused  to  give  permits  to  those  seeking  to 
recapture  the  Negroes  who  had  escaped  from  their  former 
masters,  and  used  the  blacks  at  such  labor  as  the  building 
of  roads  and  fortifications,  very  much  as  they  were  first 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  225 


question 


used  by  General  Butler.     This  anticipated  a  policy  which 
was  later  followed  by  the  United  States  Army.3 

In  the  course  of  time,  however,  the  national  government 
saw  the  necessity  of  treating  the  Negro  ques- 
tion  more  seriously.  It  was  evident  that  if 
the  South  continued  to  use  the  Negro  slaves 
in  building  fortifications  and  roads  and  bridges  and,  in 
fact,  to  do  practically  all  ^  _  __ 
of  the  labor  required  in 
the  army,  it  was  incum 
bent  upon  the  Union  arm 
ies  operating  in  the  South 
to  do  likewise.  Lincoln, 
therefore,  soon  accepted  the 
policy  of  using  the  slaves 
in  this  capacity,  receding 
from  his  former  position 
of  thinking  that  should  the 
slaves  be  given  any  en 
couragement  to  leave  their 
homes  they  might  start  a 
servile  insurrection,  and  in 
promoting  such  he  would 
weaken  himself  in  his  hold 
on  the  North. 

At  first  these  Negroes  did 
not  find  their  life  a  pleasant  one.  They  were  suddenly 
thrown  among  strange  men  from  the  North,  who.  had 
never  had  much  dealing  with  the  Negroes  and  whose  first 
impression  of  them  was  not  favorable.  Arriv-  The  Negro  in 
ing  among  these  soldiers,  naked,  hungry,  and  *ne  camps. 
often  diseased  —  moreover,  lacking  the  initiative  to  provide 

a  G.  W.  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Troops  in  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  passim;  William  Wells  Brown,  The  Rising  Son;  and  John 
Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln,  and  the  Freedmen. 


U.   S.   GRANT 


226  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

for  themselves  what  the  average  freeman  was  expected  to 
do,  they  presented  a  piteous  spectacle  which  baffled  the  skill 
of  the  army.  The  refugees  were  finally  organized  under 
directions  sent  out  from  headquarters  of  the  army,  and 
placed  in  charge  of  a  superintendent  having  under  him 
sufficient  assistants  to  relieve  most  of  the  cases  of  dis 
tress  and  to  make  some  use  of  the  able-bodied  Negroes. 

Most  of  these  refugees  were  sent  to  Washington,  Alex 
andria,  Fortress  Monroe,  Hampton,  Craney  Island,  York- 
town,  Suffolk,  Portsmouth,  Port  Royal,  South  Carolina, 
and  certain  camps  of  the  West  near  Memphis.  At  one  time, 
in  the  camp  at  Arlington,  just  across  from  Washington, 
there  were  as  many  as  30,000  Negroes.  This  number  in 
creased  to  almost  100,000  in  the  various  camps  near  Wash 
ington,  in  the  proportion  that  the  war  advanced  and  the 
territory  of  the  Confederates  became  overrun  by  the  invad 
ing  Union  armies.4  It  was  easy  to  find  employment  for 
those  in  camps  near  cities.  Some  of  them  were  put  to  work 
on  deserted  plantations.  Others  were  incorporated  into 
the  army  as  teamsters,  mechanics,  and  common  laborers. 
Sojourner  Truth,  who  served  the  Union  army  as  a  mes 
senger  and  a  spy,  rendered  valuable  service  in  these  camps 
by  teaching  the  refugees  cleanliness  and  habits  of  industry. 

It  was  arranged  also  to  send  a  number  of  these  Negroes 
from  the  congested  districts  in  the  loyal  States  as  fast  as 
opportunities  for  their  employment  presented  themselves. 
Those  found  near  cities  and  manufacturing  points,  where 
Fugitives  there  was  a  demand  for  labor,  were  in  some 
sent  North.  cases  employed  to  do  work  in  which  white  men 
sent  to  the  war  had  been  engaged.  A  good  many  passed 

4  For  more  extensive  treatment,  see  John  Eaton,  Grant,  Lincoln  and 
the  Freedmen;  E.  L.  Pierce's  The  Freedmen  of  Port  Royal,  South 
Carolina;  G.  W.  Williams's  The  History  of  Negro  Troops,  90-98;  E.  H. 
Botume's  First  Days  Amongst  the  Contrabands,  and  The  Atlantic 
Monthly,  XII,  308. 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  227 

through  Cairo,  Illinois,  into  the  West,  and  some  others  were 
sent  through  York,  Columbia,  Harrisburg,  and  Philadelphia 
to  points  in  the  North.  This,  however,  did  not  continue  to  a 
very  great  extent,  for  the  reason  that  there  was  some  appre 
hension  that  the  North  might  be  overcrowded  by  such  f reed- 
men.  Several  schemes  were  set  forth  to  transport  this  pop 
ulation,  and  when  this  number  was  still  further  increased 
by  the  thousands  of  Negroes  emancipated  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  in  1862,  Abraham  Lincoln  himself  thought  to  get 
rid  of  these  freedmen  by  promoting  a  scheme  to  colonize 
them  in  foreign  parts. 

To  carry  out  this  plan  as  he  desired,  he  sent  a  special 
message  to  Congress  expressing  the  necessity  for  Congres 
sional  action  in  the  way  of  an  appropriation  to  finance  such 
an  enterprise.  The  Secretary  of  State,  there-  uncoi^g 
fore,  opened  correspondence  with  various  colonization 
countries  having  colonies  settled  partly  by  plan* 
Negroes,  thinking  that  they  could  be  induced  to  accept 
Negro  emigrants  from  this  country.  He  conducted  corre 
spondence  then  with  Great  Britain,  Denmark,  France, 
Sweden  and  all  of  the  South  American  countries.  In  the 
beginning  it  became  evident  that  only  two  countries,  Liberia 
and  Haiti,  each  of  which  were  settled  by  Negroes,  were  will 
ing  to  admit  these  refugees.  But  the  Negroes  themselves, 
because  of  their  prejudice  against  Liberia  and  the  unsuc 
cessful  effort  at  colonization  in  Haiti,  did  not  care  to  emi 
grate  to  those  countries.  Favorable  replies,  however,  finally 
came  from  the  Island  of  A'Vache.  The  government  im 
mediately  planned  to  send  a  colony  to  that  settlement  by 
virtue  of  an  appropriation  made  by  Congress.  Bernard 
Koch  approached  the  government  and  induced  the  authori 
ties  to  make  with  him  a  contract  for  the  transportation 
of  Negroes  to  this  island. 

At  the  same  time  Koch  connected  himself  with  certain 


228  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

business  men  in  New  York,  who,  in  return  for  commercial 
advantages  to  be  gained  there,  agreed  also  to  finance  the 
The  double  enterprise.  When  this  double  dealing  was 
dealing  of  discovered  the  United  States  Government 
severed  connection  with  Koch.  The  capital 
ists,  however,  still  determined  to  conduct  this  enterprise, 
engaged  the  services  of  Koch  as  governor.  Accordingly 
a  number  of  Negroes  were  sent  to  this  island  in  the  year 
1862,  but  owing  to  the  unfavorable  conditions  and  their  lack 
of  initiative,  unusual  suffering  ensued.  It  was  necessary 
for  the  Government,  because  of  the  many  complaints  re 
ceived  therefrom,  to  send  a  special  investigator  to  report  on 
the  situation,  and  finally,  on  account  of  his  unfavorable 
report,  to  dispatch  a  transport  to  bring  the  emigrants  back 
to  the  United  States. 

Lincoln,  however,  remained  fundamentally  an  antislav- 
ery  man  in  spite  of  this  untoward  enterprise,  but  he  re 
ligiously  adhered  to  his  gradual  emancipation  schemes. 
He  would  not  permit  the  antislavery  sentiment  of  the 
country  to  force  upon  him  the  policy  of  instant  emancipa 
tion.  As  there  were  in  the  field  generals  availing  them 
selves  of  every  opportunity  to  weaken  the  slave  power, 
much  vigilance  had  to  be  exercised  to  avoid  extreme 
measures  which  might  embarrass  the  Federal  Government. 
Taking  the  advanced  position  that  the  slaves  should  be  free, 
Fremont  issued  a  decree  abolishing  slavery  in  Missouri. 
It  was  necessary  for  Lincoln  to  say  to  him  on  September 
2,  1861 :  * '  I  think  there  is  great  danger  that  the  closing 
paragraph,  in  relation  to  the  confiscation  of  property  and 
the  liberating  slaves  of  traitorous  owners,  will  alarm  our 
southern  Union  friends  and  turn  them  against  us ;  perhaps 
ruin  our  rather  fair  prospect  for  Kentucky.  Allow  me, 
therefore,  to  ask  that  you  will,  as  of  your  own  motion, 
modify  that  paragraph  so  as  to  conform  to  the  first  and 
fourth  sections  of  the  act  of  Congress,  entitled  An  Act  to 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  229 

Confiscate  Property  used  for  Insurrectionary  Purposes." 
The  following  May,  Lincoln  had  to  deal  similarly  with 
Major-General  Hunter,  then  stationed  at  Port  Royal,  South 
Carolina.  This  commander  had  issued  a  declaration  to  the 
effect  that  the  commonwealths  within  his  jurisdiction  hav 
ing  deliberately  declared  themselves  no  longer  under  the 
protection  of  the  United  States  of  America  and  having 
taken  up  arms  against  the  United  States,  it  became  a  mili 
tary  necessity  to  declare  martial  law,  and  as  slavery  and 
martial  law  were  incompatible  in  a  free  country,  the  per 
sons  of  these  States  held  to  service  were  declared  free. 
Lincoln  then  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  neither 
General  Hunter  nor  any  other  commander  or  person  had 
been  authorized  by  the  government  of  the  United  States  to 
take  such  action  and  that  the  supposed  proclamation  in 
question,  whether  genuine  or  false,  was  altogether  void 
so  far  as  respects  such  a  declaration.  He  considered  it 
sufficient  at  that  time  to  rely  upon  his  proposed  plan  for  the 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery  on  the  compensation  basis  re 
cently  accepted  by  Congress. 

Writing  Hunter  again  on  the  eleventh  of  the  same  month, 
Lincoln  said  :  ' '  The  particular  clause,  however,  in  relation 
to  the  confiscation  of  property  and  the  liberation  of  slaves 
appeared  to  me  to  be  objectionable  in  its  nonconformity  to 
the  act  of  Congress  passed  the  6th  of  last  August  upon  the 
same  subjects ;  and  hence  I  wrote  you,  expressing  my  wish 
that  that  clause  should  be  modified  accordingly.  Your 
answer,  just  received,  expresses  the  preference  on  your  part 
that  I  should  make  an  open  order  for  the  modification,  which 
I  very  cheerfully  do.  It  is,  therefore,  ordered  that  the  said 
clause  of  said  proclamation  be  so  modified,  held,  and  con 
strued  as  to  conform  to,  and  not  to  transcend,  the  provisions 
on  the  same  subject  contained  in  the  act  of  Congress,  enti 
tled  An  Act  to  Confiscate  Property  used  for  Insurrectionary 
Purposes." 


230  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

It  was  growing  more  and  more  apparent,  however,  that 
the  Negro  would  have  to  be  treated  as  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States.  In  the  army  he  had  demonstrated  his  ca- 
A  convincing  pacity  as  a  man.  He  had  shown  that  he  could 
record.  become  industrious,  that  he  was  thrifty,  and 

that  he  would  serve  unselfishly.  Where  he  had  an  oppor 
tunity  to  toil  upward  he  succeeded.  It  was  therefore 
recommended  by  a  number  of  men,  and  among  them  General 
Grant  himself,  that  certain  Negroes  be  so  equipped  and 
trained  that  they  might  be  employed  not  only  as  teamsters 
and  mechanics  and  the  like,  but  as  soldiers.  This  change  of 
policy  was  necessary  not  merely  for  sentimental  reasons  but 
because  the  North,  in  its  effort  to  subjugate  the  cavalier 
South,  had  found  those  warriors  too  well  trained  and  too 
spirited  to  be  easily  conquered.  In  most  of  the  important 
engagements  the  South  had  won.  Farragut  had  captured 
New  Orleans,  Thomas  and  Grant  had  won  a  few  victories 
in  the  West,  and  the  Monitor  had  held  its  own  with  the 
Merrimac  in  defending  the  nation's  cause,  but  the  Union 
army  had  been  twice  ingloriously  defeated  at  Manassas,  and 
McClellan  had  lost  in  his  Peninsular  campaign  and  had 
thrown  away  his  advantages  gained  at  Antietam.  As  the 
army  was  unsuccessful  under  Burnside  at  Fredericksburg, 
and  under  Hooker  at  Chancellorsville,  the  North,  growing 
tired  of  the  war,  was  becoming  fertile  ground  for  seeds  of 
a  second  secession  sown  by  copperheads  who  were  planning 
to  establish  another  republic  in  the  Northwest.  It  was 
deemed  advisable,  therefore,  to  bring  the  Negro  into  the 
army  that  he  might  help  to  save  the  Union.  By  this  time, 
too,  the  Federal  Government  had  reached  the  position  that 
slavery,  the  root  of  most  of  the  evils  of  the  country  and 
The  the  actual  cause  of  the  war,  would  have  to  be 

Emancipation  exterminated.  Congress  passed  sweeping  con- 
Proclamation.  fiscation  acts  by  virtue  of  which  the  armies 
could  take  over  slaves,  and,  in  1862,  Lincoln  came  forward 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  231 

with  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  declaring  that  after 
the  first  of  January  in  1863  all  slaves  in  those  parts  of  the 
country  where  the  people  might  remain  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  should  be  declared  free. 


*,  /*u,  <&**+  ^ 


G&**» 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE  ORIGINAL  DRAFT  OF  THE  EMANCIPATION 
PROCLAMATION 

Northern  men  like  General  DePeyster,  General  Thomas 
W.  Sherman,  General  Hunter,  Governor  Yates  of  Illinois, 
Henry  Wilson,  and  Charles  Sumner,  had  been  emphatic  in 
urging  the  United  States  Government  to  arm  the  Negroes 
to  weaken  the  South.  And  well  might  the  United  States 


232  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Army  take  this  action,  for  the  seceders  had  not  only  made 
use  of  the  Negroes  as  laborers,  but  in  Tennessee  and  Louisi 
ana  had  actually  organized  free  Negroes  for  military  serv 
ice  in  the  Confederate  Army.  Yet,  although  the  confis- 
The  arming  cation  acts  and  other  legislation  justified  the 
of  Negroes.  employment  of  Negroes,  Lincoln  hesitated  to 
carry  out  these  provisions.  In  1862,  however,  General 
David  Hunter,  commanding  in  South  Carolina,  issued  an 
order  for  recruiting  a  Negro  regiment,  which  in  a  few 
months  was  in  the  field.  This  caused  much  dissatisfaction 
among  the  Unionists,  who  did  not  feel  that  Negroes  should 
be  called  on  to  fight  the  battles  of  a  free  republic.  An  effort 
was  made  to  embarrass  General  Hunter,  but  he  emerged 
from  the  investigation  without  being  reversed,  although 
he  did  not  have  the  support  of  Lincoln.  General  J.  W. 
Phelps,  under  General  B.  F.  Butler  in  Louisiana,  under- 
toojs  to  carry  out  Hunter's  policy,  but  his  superior  was 
then  willing  to  use  the  Negroes  as  laborers  only. 

Certain  leaders  in  the  North,  however,  were  becoming  a 
little  more  aggressive  in  their  demand  for  the  employment 
of  Negroes  as  soldiers.  On  August  4,  1862,  Governor 
Sprague  of  Rhode  Island  urged  Negro  citizens  to  enlist,  and 
that  same  month  Butler  himself  appealed  to  the  free  people 
of  color  of  Louisiana  to  come  to  the  defense  of  the  Union. 
The  next  month  a  regiment  of  Negroes  marched  forth  to 
war  as  the  "First  Regiment  of  Louisiana  Native  Guards," 
soon  changed  to  the  "First  Regiment  Infantry  Corps 
d'Afrique."  There  was  later  organized  the  "First  Regi 
ment  Louisiana  Heavy  Artillery."  Other  Negro  regiments 
soon  followed,  and  before  the  end  of  1862  four  Negro  regi 
ments  had  been  brought  into  the  military  service  of  the 
United  States.  Then  came  the  "Kansas  Colored  Volun 
teers"  early  in  1863,  and  when  the  Emancipation  Procla 
mation  had  been  signed  Lincoln  officially  authorized  the 
raising  of  Negro  troops.  Then  followed  the  famous  Fifty- 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War 


233 


fourth  Massachusetts  and  so  many  other  troops  that  there 
was  established  in  Washington  a  special,  bureau  for  han 
dling  affairs  respecting  these  units,  aggregating  before  the 
end  of  the  war  178,975. 

In  keeping  with  the  custom  which  was  all  but  followed 
during  the  World  War,  the  Negro  troops  were  commanded 
almost  altogether  by  white  officers.  There  was  some  doubt 


ROBERT  GOULD  SHAW  LEADING  THE  FIFTY-FOURTH  MASSACHUSETTS 

REGIMENT 

that  the  Negro  would  make  a  good  soldier  and,  of  course, 
the  Negro  officer  was  then  almost  impossible.     The  use  of 
Massachusetts,    however,    commissioned    ten     Negro  troops. 
Negro  officers,  Kansas  three,  and  the  military  authorities 
a  considerable  number  in  Louisiana.    Negroes  held  altogether 
about  seventy-five  commissions  in  the  army  during  the  Civil 
War.      Among    these    officers    were    Lieutenant     Colonel 


234  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

William  N.  Reed  of  the  First  North  Carolina,  a  man  well 
educated  in  Germany.  He  made  a  gallant  charge  with  his 
regiment  at  the  battle  of  Olustee,  Florida,  where  he  was 
mortally  wounded.  In  the  Kansas  corps  there  were  Captain 
H.  Ford  Douglass,  First  Lieutenant  W.  D.  Matthews  and 
Second  Lieutenant  Patrick  A.  Minor.  In  the  U.  S.  C.  T. 
One  Hundred  and  Fourth  Regiment  there  were  Major 
Martin  R.  Delaney  and  Captain  0.  S.  B.  Wall  of  Company 
K.  Dr.  Alexander  T.  Augusta,  who  was  surgeon  of  the 
U.  S.  C.  T.  Seventh  Regiment,  was  finally  breveted  with 
Lieutenant-Colonel.  Dr.  John  V.  DeGrasse  was.  assistant 
surgeon  of  the  U.  S.  C.  T.  Thirty-fifth  Regiment.  Charles 
B.  Purvis,  Alpheus  Tucker,  John  Rapier,  William  Ellis, 
Anderson  R.  Abbott  and  William  Powell  were  hospital 
surgeons  at  Washington,  D.  C. 

One  might  inquire,  too,  as  to  exactly  what  was  the  status 
of  the  Negro  troops.  In  the  first  place,  they  were  not 
treated  as  the  equals  of  white  men.  There  was  objection 
to  giving  them  the  same  compensation  offered  the  whites. 
The  status  of  /-^n  ^ne  matter  of  bounties  there  was  a  dis- 
the  Negro  /  crimination  against  Negro  soldiers  who  were 
slaves  on  April  19,  1861.  This  caused  dissatis 
faction  among  the  Negro  troops,  whose  families  thereby 
seriously  suffered.  Sergeant  William  Walker  was  shot  by 
order  of  court  martial  because  he  had  his  company  stack 
arms  before  the  captain's  tent  for  the  reason  that  the  Gov 
ernment  had  failed  to  comply  with  its  contract.  The  Fifty- 
fourth  of  Massachusetts  nobly  refused  to  receive  its  pay 
until  it  had  been  made  equal  to  that  of  the  whites.  Negro 
troops,  moreover,  were  often  used  by  white  troops  for 
fatigue  duty.  Because  of  this  notorious  discrimination 
many  of  these  soldiers  became  restive,  sullen  and  even  in 
subordinate. 

Yet  these  Negroes  distinguished  themselves  as  soldiers. 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  235 

Men  under  whom  these  troops  fought  in  battle  were  loud  in 
praise  of  their  gallantry  and  martyrdom.    Negroes  served 
in  almost  all  parts  of  the  South.     They  en-     valuable 
gaged  in  the  perilous  South  Edisto  Expedition     service, 
to  burn  a  bridge  above  Walton  Bluff  to  aid  General  Sher-> 
man,  and  participated  in  the  ac 
tion  at  Honey  Hill.     Speaking 
of  their  behavior  in  the  expedi 
tion  to  Dobey  River  in  Georgia, 
General  Rufus  Saxton  said  that     j 
they    fought    with    most    deter-    J 
mined  bravery.     Surgeon   Seth 
Rogers,  operating  in  South  Caro 
lina,  said  that  braver  men  never 
lived.     Colonel  T.  W.  Higginson 
himself  believed  that  "it  would 
have  been  madness  to  attempt 
with   the   bravest   white   troops 
what     he     successfully     accom 
plished  with  the  black."     Even 
in  the  failure  to  carry  Fort  Wag 
ner,  a  point  necessary  to  the  capture  of  Charleston,  the 
Negro  troops  bore  the  severest  tests  of  valor,  following  their 
gallant  leader,  Colonel  Robert  Gould  Shaw,  who  in  this 
charge  fell  mortally  wounded. 

In  the  Mississippi  Valley  they  fought  still  more  bravely. 
Negro  troops  made  six  such  desperate  charges  on  a  fort  at 
Port  Hudson  that  a  reporter  said  that  the  deeds  of  heroism 
performed  by  these  black  men  were  such  as     Bravery  in 
the  proudest  white  men  might  emulate.    Gen-     the  West, 
eral  Banks  said  in  referring  to  their  behavior :     "It  gives 
me  great  pleasure  to  report  that  they  answered  every  ex 
pectation.     Their  conduct  was  heroic ;  no  troops  could  be 
more   determined  or  more  daring."     Other  troops  from 


COL.    THOMAS    W.    HIG 
GINSON,    a   commander 
of  Negro  troops 


236  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Louisiana  showed  themselves  equally  brave  at  Milliken's 
Bend.  Keporting  this  battle,  Captain  Matthew  M.  Miller 
said :  ' '  So  they  fought  and  died,  defending  the  cause  that 
we  revere.  They  met  death  coolly,  bravely ;  nor  rashly  did 
they  expose  themselves,  but  all  were  steady  and  obedient  to 
orders."  And  so  went  others  to  death  in  the  massacre  at 
Fort  Pillow  in  Tennessee,  where  the  Confederates,  in  keep 
ing  with  their  bold  declaration  not  to  give  quarter  to  the 
slaves  striking  for  their  own  freedom,  slaughtered  them  as 
men  kill  beasts. 

In  the  Department  of  the  Potomac  the  Negro  maintained 
there  his  reputation  as  a  soldier.  Under  General  Wild,  at 
Fort  Powhatan  in  1864,  the  Negro  soldiers  bravely  held  their 
Bravery  ground  against  the  heavy  onslaught  of  Fitz- 

alongthe  hugh  Lee's  brilliant  soldiers,  who  were  badly 

>otomac.  worsted  in  the  conflict.  When  General  Grant 
was  endeavoring  to  reduce  Petersburg,  a  brigade  of  Hinck  's 
Negro  division  brilliantly  dashed  forward  and  cleared  a 
line  of  rifle-pits  and  carried  a  redoubt  ahead.  They  did 
valiant  work  of  the  same  order  at  South  Mountain  and  died 
bravely  in  carrying  the  fortified  positions  of  the  Confed 
erates  at  New  Market  Heights  and  nearer  to  Petersburg.  In 
the  dash  along  the  James  and  in  the  pursuit  of  Lee 's  weak 
ened  forces,  the  Negroes  under  arms  maintained  their  bear 
ing  as  brave  men  and  came  out  of  the  Civil  War  as  heroes. 

In  carrying  on  the  Civil  War  many  constitutional  ques 
tions  arose.  Chief  among  these  was  the  suspension  of  the 
Writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  the  cases  of  certain  copperheads 
Constitutional  or  " pacifists"  in  the  North,  who  arrayed 
questions.  themselves  against  the  United  States  Govern 

ment  and  at  one  time  even  threatened  the  country  with  an 
additional  secession.  The  Constitution  provided  for  the  sus 
pension  of  the  writ  in  times  of  great  danger,  but  it  is  not 
clear  whether  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  contemplated 
that  this  power  should  be  exercised  by  the  President  of  the 


The  Negro  In  the  Civil  War  237 

United  States.  Furthermore,  those  who  asserted  that  the 
writ  could  be  suspended  under  certain  conditions  did  not 
concede  the  right  to  the  President  to  suspend  it  in  sections 
where  the  courts  were  open  and  where  the  armies  were  not 
in  operation.  The  most  important  case  of  this  kind  was 
that  of  Milligan,  when  by  operation  of  the  courts  the 
plaintiff  undertook  to  secure  his  liberty  through  a  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  and  the  President  of  the  United  States  in 
terfered. 

There  arose  also  a  question  as  to  taxing  the  people  unduly 
to  support  a  government  waging  war  to  coerce  certain 
States,  interfering  with  the  freedom  of  the  press  by  the 
censorship  established  during  the  war,  enforc-  Taxation, 
ing  conscription  acts  compelling  men  to  fight  against  their 
will,  and  finally,  by  action  of  Congress,  providing  for 
gradual  emancipation  in  certain  border  States  and  the  abo 
lition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Whether  Con 
gress  could  constitutionally  legislate  respecting  slavery  was 
still  a  question,  but  the  Civil  War  gradually  brought  the 
country  to  a  realization  that  Congress,  representing  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  had  adequate  power  in  the  prem 
ises.  Because  of  vesting  the  President  with  dictatorial 
power  to  wage  the  war  effectively,  however,  there  came  from 
certain  sources  a  bitter  antagonism  which  led  to  the  organ 
ization  of  a  party  of  opposition  advocating  the  Union  as  it 
was  and  the  Constitution  as  it  is. 

The  most  important  constitutional  matter  coming  up  dur 
ing  the  Civil  War  was  that  of  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  itself.     Lincoln  had  for  some  time  wondered  whether 
or  not  he  had  such  authority,  and  long  hesitated  to  issue  this 
mandate  declaring  free  all  the  Negroes  in  the      y^ 
districts  then  in  rebellion  against  the  United      emancipation 
States.     Fremont,    Hunter   and   Butler,    in      pro 
charge  of  Union  armies,  had  undertaken  to  do  this,  but  had 
to  be  restrained.    One  of  the  members  of  Lincoln's  cabinet 


238  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

was  of  the  opinion  that  he  had  no  such  power  and  that  such 
a  step  would  doubtless  do  more  harm  than  good.  In  the  end, 
however,  just  after  a  number  of  encouraging  Union  vic 
tories,  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  was  issued  and  had 
its  desired  effect,  but  to  become  legal  it  had  to  be  fortified 
by  the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  Few  persons  have  since 
questioned  the  Thirteenth  Amendment,  but  the  Fourteenth 
and  Fifteenth  which  followed  thereupon  have  since  given 
rise  to  all  sorts  of  constitutional  questions  involving  the 
rights  of  the  Negroes. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE  RECONSTRUCTION 

As  soon  as  the  Union  armies  began  to  occupy  a  consid 
erable  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  so-called  seceded 
States,  there  was  some  thought  about  the  rehabilitation  of 
these  commonwealths.1  As  to  the  exact  posi-  Lincoln's 
tion  of  these  commonwealths  which  had  un-  reconstruc- 
dertaken  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  there 
was  a  wide  difference  of  opinion.  Lincoln  himself  was  of 
the  impression  that  a  State  could  not  get  out  of  the 
Union.  "Once  in  the  Union,  forever  in  the  Union,"  was 
his  theory.  Lincoln  therefore  issued,  on  December  8,  1863, 
a  proclamation  setting  forth  a  plan  for  the  recon 
struction  of  these  commonwealths.  Making  exception  of 
those  who  had  served  in  the  civil  or  diplomatic  service  of 
the  Confederate  Government  or  in  judicial  stations,  of 
those  who  had  -served  in  the  army  or  navy  with  rank  above 
colonel,  or  who  had  abandoned  Congress  to  aid  the  rebellion, 
resigned  commissions  in  the  army,  or  cruelly  treated  Ne 
groes  or  white  persons  in  charge  of  them,  Lincoln  pro- 

i  There  are  no  scientific  studies  of  the  nation-wide  reconstruction 
in  which  the  Negroes  took  a  part.  W.  L.  Fleming,  James  F.  Rhodes, 
W.  A.  Dunning  and  J.  W.  Burgess  have  written  works  in  this  field, 
but  they  are  biased  and  inadequate.  Almost  a  score  of  other  so- 
called  scientific  studies  of  Reconstruction  in  the  various  States  have 
been  made,  but  these  merely  try  to  make,' a  case  for  the  white  man's 
eide  of  the  question  as  to  whether  the  reduction  of  the  Negro  to  serf 
dom  was  just.  John  R.  Lynch  in  his  Facts  of  Reconstruction,  and 
WEB.  DuBois  in  his  Reconstruction,  and  Its  Benefits  (in  the 
American  Historical  Review,  XV,  No.  4)  have  undertaken  to  point  out 
these  defects. 

239 


240  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

claimed  full  pardon  to  the  people  in  the  Confederate  States 
with  the  restoration  of  all  rights  of  property  except  as  to 
slaves  if  they  should  take  and  subscribe  to  an  oath  of  al 
legiance  to  the  United  States  Government  and  thencefor 
ward  keep  and  maintain  this  oath  inviolate. 

Lincoln  further  proclaimed  that  whenever  in  any  of  these 
States  there  should  be  loyal  persons  to  the  number  of  not 
less  than  one-tenth  of  the  votes  cast  in  such  States  at  the 
presidential  election  of  the  year  1860,  each  having  taken 
The  ten  per  this  oath  and  not  having  violated  it  and  being 
cent  basis.  a  qualified  voter  by  the  election  law  of  the 
State  existing  prior  to  the  secession,  the  commonwealth 
should  establish  a  State  government.  This  government 
should  be  democratic,  should  be  recognized  as  the  true  gov 
ernment  of  the  State,  and  should  receive  the  benefits  of  the 
constitutional  provision  which  declares  that  the  United 
States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a  re 
publican  form  of  government. 

Lincoln  also  proclaimed  that  any  provision  which  these 
commonwealths  thus  restored  might  adopt  in  relation  to 
the  freed  people  within  their  limits,  which  should  recognize 
Interest  In  and  declare  their  permanent  freedom,  and 
the  freedmen.  provide  for  their  education,  which  might  then 
be  consistent  as  a  temporary  arrangement  with  their 
condition  as  a  laboring,  landless  and  homeless  class, 
would  not  be  objected  to  by  the  President.  The  President 
was  of  the  opinion  that  the  name  of  the  State, 
the  boundary,  subdivisions,  constitution,  and  the  former 
code  of  laws  should  be  maintained,  subject  only  to 
the  modification  made  necessary  by  the  conditions  elsewhere 
stated  in  the  proclamation,  and  such  others,  if  any,  not 
contravening  the  conditions  of  the  proclamation  and  which 
might  be  deemed  expedient  by  those  framing  the  new  State 
government. 

Upon  this  basis  Lincoln  undertook  the  reconstruction  of 


The  Reconstruction 


241 


the  States  of  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Tennessee  prior  to 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War  as  soon  as  loyal  men  to  the  number 
of  one-tenth  of  the  voters  exercising  suffrage  in  the  presi 
dential  election  of  1860  were  found  in  states 
those  commonwealths.  When  the  cessation  reorganized, 
of  arms  finally  came,  several  other  rebellious  common 
wealths,  thinking  that  the  States  as  such  could  never  be 
destroyed,  proceeded  to  organize  similar  governments, 


TEACHING  THE  FREEDMEN 

complying  with  the  conditions  of  repudiating  the  Confeder 
ate  debts,  declaring  allegiance  to  the  Union,  and  ratifying 
the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  They,  therefore,  feeling  that 
they  would  be  immediately  admitted  to  the  Union  with  the 
rights  and  privileges  formerly  enjoyed  by  the  Southern 
States,  elected  representatives  and  senators  to  sit  in  Con 
gress.  Believing  that  Lincoln's  position  in  this  case  was 
sound,  Andrew  Johnson,  his  successor,  undertook  to  carry 
out  this  policy.  This,  however,  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
statesmen  then  in  control  of  affairs,  and  the  right  of  such 


242  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

persons  to  serve  as  representatives  of  these  commonwealths 
was  questioned. 

They  found  in  Congress  men  led  by  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
who  was  of  the  opinion  that  inasmuch  as  the  Southern 
States  had  rebelled  and  had  failed  to  maintain  their  cause, 
Various  they  were  then  subject  to  the  same  treatment 

theories.  as  anv  other  people  in  a  conquered  territory. 

This,  to  be  sure,  conflicted  with  certain  other  views,  as  it  ad 
mitted  that  secession  had  been  temporarily  successful,  and 
conflicted  with  the  administrative  plans  of  Lincoln  and 
Johnson  to  the  effect  that  secession  was  merely  an  unsuc 
cessful  effort  and  that  the  States  were  still  in  the  Union. 
Shellabarger  contended  that  secession  was  a  nullity,  which 
although  it  could  not  assume  control  of  the  territory  in 
which  it  existed,  nevertheless  worked  a  loss  in  the  status  of 
a  member  of  the  Union,  and  the  citizens  remaining  therein 
were,  therefore,  exclusively  subjected  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States  Government.  This  was  endorsed  by 
Sumner,  Fessenden  and  Wilson,  and  became,  in  fact,  the 
theory  of  the  Republican  Party  in  Congress,  which  grew 
antagonistic  to  the  administration  and  led  to  the  long  differ 
ences  of  opinion  between  that  body  and  Johnson,  finally 
culminating  in  the  impeachment  of  the  President. 

There  came  also  to  the  national  capital  various  reports 
which  further  convinced  the  gentlemen  in  charge  of  affairs 
in  Congress  that  the  South  was  unwilling  to  grant  the  Negro 
Theunwill-  the  right  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  victory  of 
ing  South.  the  Civil  WaTj  f or  the  freedmen  were  being 

oppressed  almost  to  the  extent  of  being  enslaved.  The  first 
reports  were  brought  in  by  General  Grant  and  Carl  Schurz, 
the  former  contending  that  the  southerners  were  in  the 
main  willing  to  accept  the  changes  effected  by  the  Civil 
War,  and  the  latter  being  of  the  opinion  that  the  rebellious 
commonwealths  were  not  loyal  and  intended  to  reenslave 
the  Negroes.  Some  of  these  States  were  enacting  black 


The  Reconstruction 


SOME  FACTORS  IN  THE  RECONSTRUCTION 
WILLIAM  P.  FESSENDEX  SAMUEL  SHELLABARGEB 

CARL  SCHURZ 
FREDERICK  T.  FRELIXGHUYSEX  THADDEUS  STEVENS 


244  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

codes  providing  for  apprenticeship,  penalizing  the  vagrancy 
of  Negroes,  and  interfering  with  the  civil  rights  of  the  freed- 
men.  Many  of  the  blacks,  having  wandered  about  or  flocked 
to  the  towns  where  they  too  often  were  reduced  to  poverty 
and  subject  to  temptations  and  vicious  influences,  tended  to 
retrograde  rather  than  advance.  The  vagrancy  laws,  there 
fore,  generally  provided  for  fines,  corporal  punishment,  in 
denturing  for  a  certain  period  of  service,  and  in  a  few  cases 
required  that  every  Negro  should  be  attached  to  some 
employer.  Furthermore,  there  had  set  in  a  general  intimi 
dation  of  Negroes,  and  in  some  parts,  as  in  Louisiana, 
large  numbers  of  the  race  were  massacred  by  antagonistic 
whites,  with  no  excuse  but  that  of  trying  to  regain  the  lost 
cause.  Assured  that  the  situation  was  deplorable,  Congress 
proceeded  to  draft  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  as  a  condi 
tion  of  readmission  of  a  seceded  State  to  the  Union,  endeav 
oring  to  prevent  any  State  from  making  or  enforcing  a  law 
which  would  encroach  upon  the  privileges  or  immunities 
of  citizens  of  the  United  States,  deprive  them  of  life, 
liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  or  with 
hold  from  any  one  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal  protec 
tion  of  the  law.  In  this  way  the  South,  by  taking  a  radical 
position  in  its  unwise  application  of  its  power  to  deal  with 
persons  over  whom  it  would  have  been  given  more  control, 
brought  upon  itself  a  military  rule  from  which  it  would 
not  have  suffered  if  it  had  been  disposed  to  treat  the  freed- 
men  humanely. 

These  reports  led  also  to  the  organization  of  what  is 
known  as  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,2  the  commission  estab 
lished  for  the  protection  and  the  assistance  of  the  freedmen. 
Some  such  idea  had  for  some  years  been  expressed  from 

2  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  May  the  committee  reported  the  House  bill 
with  a  substitute  amendment,  and  the  bill  thus  amended  passed  the 
Senate  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  June  by  a  vote  of  21  to  9.  The  select 
committee  of  the  House  recommended  that  the  amendments  of  the 
Senate  be  disagreed  to  and  further  action  was  postponed  until  Decem- 


The  Reconstruction  245 

time  to  time  in  Congress.  A  bill  * '  to  establish  a  bureau  of 
emancipation"  was  reported  in  the  House,  December  22, 
1863,  by  Eliot,  of  Massachusetts,  from  the  The  Freed- 
Select  Committee  on  Emancipation,  and  men's  Bureau, 
then  recommitted.  The  bill  was  reported  with  amend 
ments  on  the  thirteenth  of  January,  1864,  and  on  the  first 
of  March  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  69  to  67.  In 
the  Senate  the  bill  was  referred  to  the  Select  Committee 
on  Slavery  and  Freedmen,  of  which  Charles  Sumner  was 
chairman.  A  bill  to  establish  a  bureau  of  freedmen  was  re 
ported  from  the  committee  on  the  twelfth  of  April. 
On  the  third  of  March  the  report  of  a  second  conference 
committee  was  agreed  to  by  both  houses.  The  measure  to 
establish  the  department  was  vetoed  by  President  Johnson 
who,  in  giving  his  reasons,  so  antagonized  the  leaders  in 
Congress  as  to  widen  the  irreparable  breach  between  the 
executive  and  legislative  departments.  This  bill,  with  cer 
tain  objectionable  features  removed,  was  later  passed  over 
the  President's  veto,  but  had  to  be  amended  thereafter. 

The  act  provided  for  the  appointment  of  a  commissioner 
with  a  number  of  assistants  under  the  administration  of  the 
President  to  care  for  the  freedmen  in  the  districts  in  re 
bellion  or  controlled  by  the  Union  army.  Primarily  the 
Freedmen 's  Bureau  was  intended  to  aid  refugees  and  freed 
men  by  supplying  them  with  provisions  and  in  taking  up 
abandoned  lands  in  the  South,  which  were  to  be  distributed 
in  parcels  of  not  more  than  forty  acres  each.  On  account 
of  misrepresentations  many  Negroes  expected  from  this 
quarter  forty  acres  of  land  and  a  mule  for  each  of  the 
landless  freedmen,  and  this  prospective  charity  tended  to 
produce  vagrancy  and  shiftlessness  among  people  indulged 

ber.  On  the  twentieth  of  December  a  conference  committee  was  ap 
pointed.  The  report  of  the  committee  was  accepted  by  the  House  on 
the  ninth  of  February,  1865,  by  a  vote  of  64  to  62,  56  not  voting; 
but  it  was  rejected  by  the  Senate  on  the  twenty-second  by  a  vote  of 
14  to  24.  See  also  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  Act  in  the  Appendix. 


246 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


as  dependent  children.  The  Freedmen 's  Bureau  was  vested 
with  the  power  to  build  school  houses  and  asylums  for  the 
Negroes,  and  it  was  proposed  to  give  it  unusual  power  in 
its  jurisdiction  over  all  civil  and  criminal  cases  where 

equality  in  civil  rights  and 
in  the  application  of  jus 
tice  was  denied  on  ac 
count  of  race,  color,  or 
previous  condition  of  ser 
vitude.  With  this  unusual 
power  vested  in  machin 
ery  coming  from  without 
the  State  and  intended 
to  benefit  persons  recently 
enslaved,  the  Freedmen  's 
Bureau  became  a  source  of 
much  irritation  to  the 
whites  of  the  South.  Grant 
thought  that  the  officers  of 
the  Freedmen 's  Bureau 

GEN.  O.  0.  HOWARD,  head  of  the   were  a  useless  set  of  men 
Freedmen's  Bureau  and  founder  of          -,  -,    -,   ,,         ,, 

Howard  University  an(1  recommended  tnat  the 

work  be  placed  in  charge 

of  army  officers.  It  was  for  a  number  of  years  directed  by 
General  0.  0.  Howard,  the  founder  of  Howard  University. 
When  Congress  finally  decided  to  ignore  Johnson's  re 
construction  schemes,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  work 
out  a  more  acceptable  plan.  After  some  deliberation  these 
gentlemen  returned  with  a  majority  and  a  minority  report. 
Congressional  The  maJority  report,  representing  the  views 
of  the  Unionists,  was  to  the  effect  that  the 
attempted  secession  of  eleven  States  had  re 
sulted  in  the  loss  of  their  stateship  and  in  their  becoming 
disorganized  communities,  but  that  although  the  State  gov 
ernments  in  the  same  had  been  destroyed,  the  common- 


recon 
struction. 


The  Reconstruction 


247 


wealths  had  not  escaped  the  obligations  of  the  Constitution 
and  the  authority  of  the  United  States  Government.  The 
minority  report,  representing  the  secessionist  theory,  was 
that  a  State  could  never  be  anything  less  than  a  State,  re 
gardless  of  what  its  deeds  may  be,  and  each  was,  therefore, 
entitled  to  the  same  powers,  rights  and  privileges  under  the 
Constitution  as  those  given  any  other  State.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  under  these  circumstances  the  minority  report 
had  little  weight. 

Congress  thereupon  proceeded  in  accordance  with  the 
views  of  the  majority  to  work  out  a  plan  for  the  control 

of  the  disorganized  States.  In 
spite  of  the  President 's  opposition 
and  his  vetoes,  it  was  decided  to 
divide  the  seceded  States  into  five 
military  districts,  to  each  of  which 
the  President  would  Military 
assign  an  army  of-  districts, 
ficer  of  not  lower  rank  than  a 
brigadier  general,  with  a  sufficient 
force  to  enable  him  to  carry  out 
the  laws  of  the  Union.  The  com 
manders  were  to  govern  these 
.districts  by  martial  law  as  far  as 
in  their  judgments  the  reign  of  order  and  the  preser 
vation  of  public  peace  might  demand.  No  sentence  of 
death,  however,  could  be  carried  out  without  the  approval 
of  the  President.  To  escape,  from  this  military  govern 
ment,  a  rebellious  State  had  to  accept  universal  man 
hood  suffrage  of  all  male  citizens  of  twenty-one  years  of 
age  without  regard  to  color,  race  or  previous  condition  of 
servitude.  This  election  would  provide  for  the  framing 
of  a  State  constitution  through  delegates  to  be  chosen,  ex 
cepting  persons  who  were  disqualified  by  participation  in 
the  rebellion.  There  would  have  to  be  a  ratification  of  this 


JOHN  M.  LANGSTON 


248 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


constitution  by  a  majority  of  the  voters  as  designated  by 
the  same  law  of  suffrage  for  the  delegates  of  the  convention. 
These  States,  moreover,  would  have  to  ratify  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment,  which  protected  the  Negroes  from  the  oppres 
sion  of  the  whites  in  that  it  guaranteed  to  them  the  enjoy 
ment  of  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  without  re 
gard  to  race,  color  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude.  The 
South  had  refused  to  ratify  this 
amendment. 

Some  of  the  States  immedi 
ately  availed  themselves  of  this 
opportunity  to  be  relieved  of  the 
military  regime,  for  there  was 
among  them  a  natural  antago- 
Different  nism  to  martial  law. 
courses  Other  States,  Vir- 

lowed'  ginia,  Georgia  and 
Texas,  however,  refused  to  take 
advantage  of  this  concession, 
hoping  to  find  a  better  solution 
of  the  problem  by  adopting  the  JoHN  R  L£™*'esas  member  of 
policy  of  watchful  waiting.  The 

citizens  of  these  States  found  out  that  the  military  gov 
ernment  was  more  acceptable  than  the  governments  so 
quickly  organized  in  some  of  the  other  Southern  States,  and 
decided  then  for  the  time  being  to  obey  the  dictum  of  the 
army.  In  the  course  of  time  there  was  an  enlargement  of 
the  white  majority  by  the  extension  of  the  terms  of  granting 
pardon  to  those  who  had  participated  in>  the  rebellion,  and 
as  there  was  already  a  larger  percentage  of  white  persons 
than  Negroes  in  these  three  States  when  the  time  did  come 
for  them  to  organize  State  governments,  there  soon  de 
veloped  a  majority  opposed  to  radical  reconstruction^  The 
other  States  in  the  South,  from  1868  to  about  1872,  became 


The  Reconstruction 


249 


subjected  to  what  is  commonly  known  as  Negro  carpet-bag 
rule. 

To  call  this  Negro  rule,  however,  is  very  much  of  a  mis 
take  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  local  offices  in 
these  commonwealths  were  held  by  the  white  men,  and  those 
Negroes  who  did  attain  some  of  the  higher  offices  were 

usually  about  as  competent  as 
the  average  whites  thereto 
elected.  Only  twenty  Negroes 
served  in  Congress  from  1868 
to  1895.  The  Negroes  had  politi 
cal  equality  in  the  Southern 
States  only  a  few  years,  and 
with  some  exceptions  their  ten 
ure  in  Congress  was  very  short. 
Hiram  R.  Revels  Not  a  Negro 
of  Mississippi  com-  T^me- 
pleted  an  unexpired  term  in  the 
Senate  and  B.  K.  Bruce  served 
there  six  years.  John  M.  Lang- 

ston,  the  Negro  member  from 
H.  R.  REVELS,  U.  S.  Senator  ^T.  .  .  *,  •  ,-,  TT 

from  Mississippi  Virginia,   served  in  the  House 

one  term.  From  North  Caro 
lina  there  were  sent  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  John 
A.  Hyman  for  one  term  and  James  E.  O'Hara,  H.  P. 
Cheatham  and  George  H.  White  for  two  terms  each.  Jef 
ferson  F.  Long  represented  a  district  of  Georgia  a  part  of 
a  term.  Josiah  T.  Walls  of  Florida  served  in  the  House 
two  terms.  Alabama  elected  to  Congress  Jere  Haralson, 
Benjamin  S.  Turner  and  James  T.  Rapier,  who  served  one 
term  each.  Louisiana  sent  Charles  E.  Nash  for  one  term, 
and  Mississippi  John  R.  Lynch  for  two.  South  Carolina 
had  the  largest  number  of  Negro  representatives  in  tha 
House.  Joseph  H.  Rainey  of  that  Commonwealth  sat  in 
Congress  five  terms;  Richard  H,  Cain,  two;  Robert  C. 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


SOME  NEGRO  CONGRESSMEN 

ROBERT  B.  ELLIOTT  JOSIAH  T.  WALLS 

ROBERT  C.  DELARGE  RICHARD  H.  CAIN 


The  Reconstruction 


251 


DeLarge,  one;  Alonzo  J.  Ransier,  one;  Robert  B.  Elliott, 

two;   Robert   Smalls,   five;   Thomas  E.   Miller,   one;   and 

George  W.  Murray,  two. 

The  charge  that  all  Negro  officers  were  illiterates,  ignorant 

of  the  science  of  government,  cannot  be  sustained.    Some  of 

them  had  undergone  con 
siderable  training  and  had 
experienced  sufficient  men 
tal  development  to  be  able 
to  discharge  their  duties 
with  honor.  Hiram  R. 
Revels  spent  two  years  in  a 

Quaker    sem-     Literacy  of 
i  n  a  r  y     and      voters  and 

officers. 

was  later  in 
structed  at  Knox  College; 
B.  K.  Bruce  was  educated 
at  Oberlin  College.  Jere 
Haralson  learned  enough  to 
teach.  R.  H.  Cain  studied 
at  Wilberforce.  James  T. 
Rapier  was  well  educated 
in  a  Catholic  school  in  Can 
ada,  Benjamin  Turner 
clandestinely  received  a 


B.  K.  BRUCE,  U.  S.  Senator  from 
Mississippi 


fair  education  in  Alabama.  James  E.  O'Hara  obtained  a 
secondary  education.  Robert  Brown  Elliott,  educated  at 
Eton  College,  England,  had,  according  to  Frederick 
Douglass,  no  peer  in  his  race  except  Samuel  R.  Ward. 
John  M.  Langston,  after  finishing  both  the  college  and 
theological  courses  at  Oberlin,  practiced  law  in  Ohio.  John 
R.  Lynch,  as  evidenced  by  his  addresses  and  writings,  was 
well  educated  by  his  dint  of  energy,  although  he  had  only 
a  common  school  training.  Most  Negroes  who  sat  in  Con 
gress  during  the  eighties  and  nineties,  moreover,  had  more 


m     m^m.   y^K^S 
m  ^~  ,nf 


252  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

formal  education  than  Warren  G.  Harding,  now  President 
of  the  United  States. 

Other  Negro  officeholders,  furthermore,  were  liberally 
trained.  Kichard  T.  Greener,  a  Reconstruction  office 
holder  in  South  Carolina,  was  the  first  Negro  graduate 
of  Harvard  College.  F.  L.  Cardozo,  another  functionary 

in  the  same  State,  was  educated 
at  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
Scotland.  E.  D.  Bassett,  who 
distinguished  himself  as  an  edu 
cator  and  as  Minister  to  Liberia, 
studied  the  classics,  mathematics 
and  general  literature  at  Yale 
after  being  graduated  at  the 
Birmingham  Academy  and  the 
rfe  H  Connecticu^^State  Normal 

,gjjjii£fm  m      Sch°o1-    ^^BS-  Finback  ad- 

TO|  mirably   u^^o.    common    sense 

pf^fl  with  his  fundamental  education 

^^  JP  obtained    largely    at    Gilmore's 

High  School  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
JOSEPH  H.RAIN  member  ^rior  to  the  war 

Were  Negroes  in  general  ca 

rte?  To  what  extent  were  they  qualified  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  citizens?  It  is  true  that  many  of  them 
were  not  prepared  to  vote,  and  decidedly  disqualified  for 
Negroes  the  positions  which  they  held.  In  some  of 

capable.  ^e  legislatures,  as  in  Louisiana  and  South 

Carolina,  more  than  half  of  the  Negro  members  could 
scarcely  read  or  write  and  had,  therefore,  to  vote  ac 
cording  to  emotions  or  the  dictates  of  the  demagogues, 
?,  of  course,  it  has  been  true  of  legislature  composed  en 
tirely  of  whites.  In  the  local  and  State  administrative  of 
fices,  however,  where  there  were  frequent  chances  for  cor 
ruption,  very  few  ignorant  Negroes  ever  served.  In 


The  Reconstruction 


253 


fact,  most  Negroes  insisted  on  finding  the  best  qualified 
candidates  for  important  positions.  That  they  often 
failed  in  obtaining  such  is  not  due  to  the  shortcomings 
of  the  Negro  but  to  the  leadership  of  the  white  adven 
turers  and  to  the  refusal  of  ex-slaveholders  to  cooperate 
with  the  freedmen  in  establishing  the  Reconstruction  gov 
ernments  on  a  sounder  basis. 
Most  of  the  local,  State  and 
Federal  offices,  however,  were 
held  not  by  Negroes  but  by 
southern  white  men,  and  by 
others  who  came  from  the  North 
and  profited  by  the  prostration 
of  the  South.  They  were  in 
many  respects  sel-  White  men 
fish  men,  but  not  in  control, 
always  utterly  lacking  in  prin 
ciple.  The  northern  whites,  of 
course,  had  little  sympathy  for 
the  South  and  depended  for 
their  constituency  upon  the  Ne 
groes,  who  could  not  be  expected 
to  placate  the  ex-slaveholders.  Being  adventurers  and  in 
terested  in  their  own  affairs,  the  carpet-baggers  became  un 
usually  corrupt  in  certain  States,  administering  affairs  not 
for  the  benefit  of  the  body  politic  but  for  their  own  personal 
aggrandizement.  Yet  although  Negroes  were  implicated  in 
these  offenses,  few  of  them  materially  profited  by  this  pro 
cedure.  Most  Negro  officers  who  served  in  the  South  came 
out  of  office  with  an  honorable  record.  Such  was  the  case 
with  J.  T.  White,  Commissioner  of  Public  Works  and  Inter 
nal  Improvements  in  Arkansas,  M.  W.  Gibbs,  City  Judge  in 
Little  Rock,  J.  C.  Corbin,  State  Superintendent  of  Schools 
in  the  same  State,  F.  L.  Cardozo,  State  Treasurer  of  South 
Carolina,  T.  Morris  Chester,  Brigadier  General  in  charge 


JAMES  T.  RAPIER,  a  mem 
ber   of   Congress 


254 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


of  the  State  Guards  of  Louisiana,  and  P.  B.  S.  Pinchback, 
Lieutenant  and  Acting  Governor  of  Louisiana.  Others  who 
held  office  elsewhere  lived  up  to  the  same  record.  Chief 
among  these  may  be  mentioned  Frederick  Douglass,  who 
served  in  the  District  of  Columbia  as  Marshal  and  Re 
corder  of  Deeds  and  abroad  as  Minister  to  Haiti. 

Whether  or  not  the  Negro  was  capable,  whether  he  was 
honest,  however,  had  little  to  do 
with  the  southern  white  man's 
attitude  toward  the  Negro  office 
holders.  To  produce  evidence 
that  the  Negroes  lacked  these 
essentials,  the  whites  well  knew, 
Prejudice  a  would  help  them  to 
factor.  justify  themselves 

to  the  world  for  using  such  harsh 
measures  to  overthrow  the  new- 
regime.  But  the  Negro  was  un 
acceptable  merely  because  he  was 
black,  because  he  had  not  en 
joyed  the  distinction  of  wringing 
his  bread  from  the  sweat  of  another's  brow.  Government, 
as  the  southern  man  saw  it,  should  be  based  on  an  aristo 
cratic  exploitation  of  the  man  far  doAvn.  As  the  slave 
holders  had  for  centuries  enjoyed  this  exclusive  privilege, 
they  could  not  but  bear  it  grievously  that  it  had  been  sud 
denly  taken  away. 

That  the  new  governments  were  corrupt  was  not  an  ex 
ception  to  the  rule  of  that  time.  With  the  reorganization 
of  things  throughout  the  country  after  the  Civil  War,  and 
Corruption  the  opening  up  of  new  industries  and  oppor- 
explained.  tunities  in  the  undeveloped  parts  of  this  coun 
try,  there  came  an  era  of  speculation,  dishonest  business, 
and  corrupt  governments,  implicating  the  highest  State  and 
Federal  functionaries.  There  never  was  a  more  corrupt 


P.     B.      S.      PlTVCHBACK,     act 

ing   Governor   of    Louisiana 


The  Reconstruction  255 

government  than  that  conducted  by  the  whites,  constituting 
the  Tweed  ring  in  New  York.  The  very  persons  who  com 
plained  of  the  corruption  in  the  Negro  carpet-bag  govern 
ments  and  who  effected  the  reorganization  of  the  State  gov 
ernments  in  the  South  when  the  Negroes  were  overthrown, 
moreover,  became  just  as  corrupt  as  the  governing  class  un 
der  the  preceding  regime.  In  almost  every  restored  State 
government  in  the  South,  and  especially  in  Mississippi,  the 
white  officers  in  control  of  the  funds  defaulted.  These  per 
sons  who  had  been  so  long  out  of  office  came  back  so  eager 
to  get  the  most  out  of  them  that  they  filled  their  own  pockets 
from  the  coffers  of  the  public. 

In  contradistinction  to  this  rule  of  stealing  from  the  pub 
lic  treasury,  Debuclet,  the  Negro  who  served  as  Treasurer 
of  the  State  of  Louisiana  and  who,  when  the  government 
of  that  State  was  taken  from  the  Negroes  by     Excellent 
the  restored  aristocrats,  had  still  two  years  to     record  of 
serve,  was  investigated  with  a  view  to  finding  uc  **• 

out  some  act  of  misuse  of  the  public  funds  that  he  might  be 
impeached  and  thrown  out  of  office.  The  committee,  of 
which  E.  D.  White,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  was  chairman,  after  much  deliberation 
reported  that  his  funds  had  been  honestly  handled  and  that 
there  were  no  grounds  on  which  proceedings  against  him 
could  be  instituted. 

The  gravest  charge  against  the  Negroes  seemed  to  grow 
out  of  the  unwritten  law  that  the  superior  white  race  should 
not  be  ruled  by  its  inferiors.  That  there  should  be  unusual 
friction  in  communities  where  persons,  who  a  Haughtiness, 
few  years  prior  to  their  elevation  to  citizenship  had  served 
as  goods  and  chattels,  should  at  that  time  be  passing  among 
the  whites  as  civil  and  military  officers,  should  excite  little 
surprise.  But  true  students  of  history  know  that  the  Ne 
groes  were  not  especially  anxious  to  put  themselves  forward. 
While  there  were  a  good  many  among  them  seeking  to  be 


256  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

placed  where  they  could  not  serve,  the  majority  of  the  blacks 
were  anxious  to  secure  the  cooperation,  of  the  best  whites. 
But  because  of  the  unusual  antagonistic  attitude  of  the 
former  slaveholders,  feeling  that  the  Negro  should  have 
no  part  in  the  government  at  all,  they  refused  to  cooperate, 
hoping  that  they  could  in  some  way  effect  the  complete 
elimination  of  the  Negro  from  politics,  as  they  have  done  in 
recent  years.  The  result,  therefore,  was  that  the  Negroes 
were  in  the  beginning  compelled  to  support  for  office  white 
men  who  had  never  been  tried  and  who  had  in  some  cases 
given  evidence  of  dishonest  purposes. 

The  argument  against  this,  however,  is  that  the  Negroes 
should  not  have  been  enfranchised  and  that  the  government 
should  have  been  organized  among  the  loyal  whites.  To 
Enfranchise-  this  it  may  be  replied  that  there  were  few  loyal 
ment  question,  whites,  and  many  of  those  who  pretended  that 
they  were  and  undertook  to  organize  governments  proved 
to  be  just  as  oppressive  as  they  ever  had  been,  and  in 
fact  undertook  to  reestablish  slavery.  Had  there  been  a 
close  cooperation  among  the  best  whites  in  the  South  and  a 
gradual  incorporation  of  the  intelligent  freedmen  into  the 
electorate,  many  of  the  mistakes  made  would  have  been  obvi 
ated  ;  and  the  recent  steps  backward  towards  lynching  and 
peonage  would  not  have  been  made. 

These  criticisms  of  the  carpet-bag  government  had  the 
desired  effect  among  the  poor  and  ignorant  whites  who, 
reared  under  the  degrading  influences  of  slavery,  could  not 
Ku  Klux  Klan.  tolerate  the  blacks  as  citizens.  The  Negroes 
thereafter  were  harassed  and  harried  by  disturbing  ele 
ments  of  anarchy,  out  of  which  soon  emerged  an  oath-bound 
order  called  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  terrorizing  the  Negroes 
with  lawlessness  and  violence.  Congress,  therefore,  deemed 
it  necessary  to  pass  a  series  of  repressive  measures,  known 
as  " force  bills,"  to  protect  the  Negroes  in  the  enjoyment  of 
the  civil  and  political  rights.  The  President  was  author- 


The  Reconstruction 


258  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ized  to  suppress  insurrection  in  the  Southern  States  where 
and  when  local  authorities  were  powerless  and  might  sus 
pend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
Federal  courts  was  so  extended  as  to  take  cognizance  of 
cases  in  which  Negroes  complained  of  being  deprived  of 
their  rights.  This  legislation  also  contemplated  the  use 
of  Federal  troops  to  secure  fair  election  in  these  States. 
While  these  measures  offered  temporary  relief  they  caused 
such  deep  resentment  in  the  South,  especially  among  those 
whites  who  were  endeavoring  to  suppress  mob  violence, 
that  the  South  tended  to  become  a  smoldering  volcano 
awaiting  an  opportunity  for  eruption. 

The  denouement  came  from  President  Rutherford  B. 
Hayes  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops  to  the  support  of 
whom  he  probably  owed  his  doubtful  election.  The  occasion 
ipjjQ  was  the  consideration  of  the  question  of  con- 

withdrawal  tinuing  the  use  of  troops  in  South  Carolina. 
Hayes  said:  "In  my  opinion,  there  does  not 
now  exist  in  that  State  such  domestic  violence  as  is  con 
templated  by  the  Constitution  as  the  ground  upon  which  the 
military  power  of  the  National  Government  may  be  invoked 
for  the  defense  of  the  State,  but  these  are  settled  by 
such  orderly  and  peaceable  methods  as  may  be  provided  by 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  State.  I  feel  assured  that 
no  resort  to  violence  is  contemplated  in  any  quarter,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  the  disputes  in  question  are  to  be  set 
tled  solely  by  such  peaceful  remedies  as  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  of  the  State  provide. " 

The  withdrawal  of  the  national  troops  from  the  South 
gave  much  relief  to  the  whites  in  that  section  and  pleased 
a  majority  of  the  Northern  citizens,  who,  despite  the  efforts 
of  the  Southerners  to  break  up  the  Union,  could  not  support 
the  policy  of  forever  afflicting  them  with  martial  law.  The 
Negroes  and  their  sympathizers,  however,  have  always  con 
sidered  this  the  most  unstatesman-like  act  any  President 


The  Reconstruction  259 

has  committed  since  the  war.  They  contend  that  it  almost 
immediately  restored  to  power  the  unreconstructed  element 
which,  because  of  the  color  of  the  freedmen,  segregated, 
disfranchised  and  lynched  them  to  the  extent  that  the 
United  States  can  now  be  criticized  for  not  complying  with 
that  clause  of  the  Constitution  guaranteeing  every  State 
a  republican  form  of  government.  These  troops  should 
have  undoubtedly  been  withdrawn  by  gradual  process,  in 
the  proportion  that  the  districts  thus  relieved  exhibited 
evidence  of  the  ability  to  protect  all  citizens  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  their  rights  and  privileges. 

The  closing  chapter  in  the  reconstruction  is  its  undoing. 
The  whites  reclaimed  the  governments  from  the  Negroes. 
Not  only  were  they  anxious  to  take  over  the  offices  and  the 
public  funds,  but  to  prevent  the  Negroes  from  ^Q  und0ing 

participating  thereafter  in  the  governments  of    of  the  re- 

.       ,        construction, 
those  States  they  enacted  measures  which  by 

peculiar  provisions  in  the  laws  of  suffrage  for  the  qualifica 
tions  of  voters  eliminated  most  Negroes  from  the  electorate 
on  the  grounds  that  they  could  not  read  and  write,  did  not 
own  property,  or  were  not  descendants  of  persons  who  had 
voted  prior  to  certain  dates.  In  this  way  they  hedged 
around  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  provided  that  the 
right  to  vote  should  not  be  denied  on  account  of  race,  color 
or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  They,  moreover,  cur 
tailed  the  privileges  of  the  Negroes  by  segregation  laws 
dealing  first  with  places  of  amusements  like  theaters  and 
parks,  with  the  schools,  and  finally  with  farming  and  resi 
dential  districts  in  most  parts  of  the  South. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

FINDING    A    WAY    OP    ESCAPE 

THE  abridgment  of  the  Negroes '  rights  came  as  such  a 
calamity  that  for  a  generation  following  the  restoration  of 
the  reactionaries  to  power,  the  Negroes  were  in  a  state  of 
The  confusion  seeking  to  extricate  themselves  from 

untoward  their  difficulties.1  There  then  ensued  a  most 
cruel  persecution  of  the  blacks  by  the  degraded 
and  impecunious  poor  whites.  Although  assured  that  the 
Negroes  could  not  under  the  circumstances  soon  regain  their 
political  rights,  certain  criminal  communities  have  found 
special  delight  in  killing  and  lynching  Negroes  on  account 
of  offenses  for  which  a  white  man  would  hardly  be  accused, 
if  the  complainant  happened  to  be  black.  The  local  news 
papers,  by  their  art  of  psychological  appeal  to  the  race 
prejudice  of  the  masses,  have  succeeded  in  convincing  the 
public  that  the  general  cause  of  these  lynchings  was  crimi 
nal  assault,  but  statistics  show  that  ordinary  misdemeanors 
of  Negroes  have  been  the  sole  excuse  for  three  out  of  every 
four  of  these  lynchings. 

The  extent  to  which  the  country  has  been  disgraced  by 

i  George  W.  Williams,  History  of  the  Negro  Race,  II,  375-380;  C. 
G.  Woodson,  A  Century  of  Negro  Migration,  chs.  VII  and  VIII;  The 
Atlantic  Monthly,  XLIV,  page  222  et  seq.;  TheVicksburg  Commercial, 
May  6,  1919;  The  Nation,  XXVIII,  242,  386;  The  American  Journal 
of  Social  Science,  XI,  1-35;  Public  Opinion,  XVIII,  370  et  seq.;  The 
American  Law  Review,  XL,  29,  52,  205,  227,  354,  381,  547,  590,  695, 
758,  865,  905;  Reports  of  Committees  of  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  for  the  First  and  Second  Sessions  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress, 
1879-1880,  pp.  iii-xiii. 

260 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  261 

the  institution  of  lynching  may  be  more  easily  estimated  by 
a  few  statistics.  According  to  General  Sheridan,  3,500  per 
sons  were  killed  in  the  South  during  the  first  Lynching, 
decade  after  emancipation ;  1,884  were  killed  and  wounded 
in  1868,  and  probably  1,200  between  1868  and  1875.  Most 
of  these  massacres  occurred  in  the  disturbed  area  of  Louisi 
ana.  Following  that  period  the  number  of  Negroes  annually 
lynched  in  the  whole  country  aggregated  between  fifty  and 
a  hundred,  and  the  whole  number  for  the  reconstruction 
and  readjustment  periods  not  less  than  2,500.  As  the 
Negroes  were  no  longer  valuables  attached  to  owners,  as 
horses  or  cattle,  there  was  little  to  restrain  the  degraded 
class  from  murdering  them  in  communities  where  few  white 
men  had  any  conception  of  the  blacks  as  persons  entitled  to 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

The  economic  situation  in  the  South  in  the  meantime  be 
came  critical.  The  poor  whites  who  were  unwilling  to  labor 
themselves  so  disturbed  the  Negroes  that  their  employment 
was  precarious.  The  ex-slaveholders,  more-  The  economic 
over,  imposed  upon  the  Negroes  willing  to  situation, 
work.  The  Negroes  were  the  only  dependable  laboring 
classes  in  the  South,  and  too  many  were  trying  to  live  on  the 
fruits  of  the  Negroes '  labor.  Whether  aware  or  not  of  being 
duped,  the  Negroes  had  to  seek  employment  by  the  whites, 
as  they  had  no  capital  to  operate  farms  and  factories  inde 
pendently.  Some  of  those  who,  during  the  happiest  days  of 
reconstruction,  succeeded  in  acquiring  property,  saw  it 
thereafter  seized  on  the  plea  of  delinquent  taxes  and  trans 
ferred  to  the  master  class. 

The  land  in  the  South,  moreover,  remained  mainly  in 
large  tracts  held  by  planters,  who,  except  in  the  case  of 
poverty,  never  desired  to  dispose  of  it ;  and  even  if  they  had 
been  thus  inclined,  the  Negroes  could  not  un-  Land  Tenure, 
der  the  existing  regime  quickly  earn  sufficient  money  to 
purchase  large  holdings.  There  was  then  no  chance  for  the 


262  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Negroes  to  develop  at  once  into  a  desirable  class  of  farmers. 
They  then  became  mainly  a  wage-earning  element  dependent 
on  the  will  of  their  employers.  As  few  of  the  Negroes  could 
read  and  write,  they  were  cheated  in  signing  contracts  and 
had  to  suffer  the  consequent  privations  aggravated  by 
cruelty,  if  they  unduly  complained. 

The  wage  system  of  the  South  early  failed  to  give  satis 
faction,  except  in  the  sugar  district.  The  planters  then 
made  the  experiment  of  working  on  shares,  but  had  to 
Wage  system  abandon  this  because  the  employer  was  not 
tried.  always  able  to  advance  the  Negro  tenant  sup 

plies  pending  the  growth  of  the  crop,  and  some  insisted  that 
the  Negro  was  too  indifferent  and  lazy  to  make  the  partner 
ship  desirable.  It  was  then  decided  to  resort  to  the  renting 
system,  which  became  the  accepted  tenure  in  the  cotton 
district.  While  this  system  apparently  threw  the  tenant 
on  his  own  responsibility,  it  frequently  made  him  the  victim 
Rent  system,  of  his  own  ignorance  and  the  rapacity  of  his 
landlord.  As  the  Negroes  could  do  no  better  they  had  to 
pay  such  high  rent  that  they  hardly  derived  from  their  labor 
adequate  returns  to  support  their  families. 

The  worst  feature  of  the  rent  plan  was  its  iniquitous 
concomitant,  the  credit  system.  Having  no  capital  to  begin 
with,  a  Negro  tenant  became  dependent  on  his  landlord  for 
The  credit  advance  of  supplies  of  tools,  food  and  clothing 
system.  during  the  year,  secured  by  a  lien  on  the 

crop.  As  these  new  tenants  had  had  only  a  few  years 
of  freedom  to  learn  business  methods,  they  became  a  prey 
to  dishonest  men  who,  through  their  stores  and  banks,  ex 
torted  from  the  Negroes  practically  all  of  their  earnings  be 
fore  the  end  of  the  year.  A  few  honest  planters  desired  to 
protect  the  Negroes  by  supplying  them  at  reasonable  prices ; 
but  subject  to  usury  themselves,  their  efforts  availed  little. 
It  was  necessary  then  for  the  Negro  tenant  to  begin  the 
year  with  three  mortgages,  covering  all  he  owned,  his  labor 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  263 

for  the  coming  year,  and  all  he  expected  to  acquire  during 
that  twelvemonth.  According  to  an  observer  of  the  time, 
he  paid  "one-third  of  his  product  for  the  use  of  the  land; 
he  paid  an  exorbitant  fee  for  recording  the  contract,  by 
which  he  paid  his  pound  of  flesh;  he  was  charged  two  or 
three  times  as  much  as  he  ought  to  pay  for  ginning  his  cot 
ton  ;  and,  finally,  he  turned  over  his  crop  to  be  eaten  up  in 
commissions,  if  any  was  still  left  to  him." 

Various  means  of  escape  from  these  conditions  were  there 
fore  considered.     Some  Negroes  still  looked  forward  to  a 
change  in  politics,  believing  that  a  reconstructed  Republican 
Party  would  again  interfere  in  southern  af-        Remedies 
fairs  to  relieve  the  Negroes.     Others  had  the       proposed, 
idea  that  religion  would  be  the  solution  of  the  problem. 
They  insisted  that  the  calamities  of  the  race  resulted  as 
an  affliction  with  which  they  had  been  visited  because  of 
their  wandering  away  from  God,  who  would  right  their 
wrongs  as  soon  as  they  heeded  His  pleading  voice. 

The  unrest,  however,  first  found  a  safety  valve  in  the 
exodus  of  the  Negroes.  During  the  seventies  a  considerable 
number  of  them  moved  from  North  Carolina  to  Indiana, 
where  because  of  the  pivotal  political  situation  in  that  State 
their  migration  gave  rise  to  the  accusation  that  they  were 
being  brought  thither  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  doubtful 
States  for  the  Republican  Party.  A  Congressional  investi 
gation  proved  that  these  charges  were  absurd.  The  larger 
number  of  the  Negroes  who,  during  this  period,  were  in 
duced  to  move  North,  went  not  to  Indiana  but  to  Kansas, 
because  of  its  known  attitude  towards  the  black  man  as 
evidenced  by  its  willingness  to  bleed  in  behalf  of  freedom. 

This  movement  was  an  organized  one,  promoted  by  two 
men  who  were  not  widely  known  as  race  leaders  but  at 
tained  distinction  as  the  organizers  of  one  of    The  exodus 
the  most  disturbing  migrations  ever  effected    to  the  West- 
among  Negroes.     They  were  Henry  Adams  of  Louisiana 


264 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


and  Benjamin  or  "Pap"  Singleton  of  Tennessee.  Seeing 
that  the  Negroes  had  almost  lost  the  fruits  of  their  emanci 
pation  and  that  there  was  little  hope  that  their  situation 
would  be  greatly  improved,  they  had  organized  a  commit 
tee  which  they  later  increased  by  the  hundreds  to  circulate 

information  as  to  the  intolerable 
oppression  of  the  blacks  and  the 
opportunities  in  the  West  for  re 
lief  therefrom.  In  this  way,  ac 
cording  to  these  promoters,  they 
interested  100,000  or  200,000 
Negroes,  although  not  more  than 
one-fourth  or  one-fifth  of  this 
number  actually  went  West. 

This  unusual  movement  of  the 
Negroes  threatened  the  South 
with  economic  ruin.  The  think 
ing  class  saw  that  the  section  was 
soon  to  lose  the  economic  foundation  of  its  prosperity, 
and  that  if  something  were  not  speedily  done  the  land 
would  doubtless  become  a  waste  place  in  the  wilderness. 
Meetings,  therefore,  were  called  among  the  whites  and  the 
blacks  to  induce  the  latter  to  remain  where  they  were.  The 
most  important  meeting  of  this  kind  was  that  held  at 
Alarm  among  Vicksburg,  Mississippi,  on  May  6,  1879. 
the  planters.  There  were  assembled  the  representatives  of 
the  best  of  both  races  seeking  to  reach  some  conclusion  as 
how  to  deal  with  the  situation.  Frank  expressions  as  to 
the  causes  of  the  grievances  were  made  on  both  sides,  and 
most  persons  concerned  were  willing  to  make  such  sacrifices 
of  personal  feeling  and  opinion  as  to  remedy  the  evils 
complained  of. 

Unwilling  to  rely  upon  moral  suasion,  however,  the  whites 
resorted  to  force  to  stop  the  exodus  by  denying  the  Negroes 


R.  T.  GREENER 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  265 

transportation  and  imprisoning  them  on  false  charges;  but 
Negroes  to  the  number  of  many  thousands  continued  their 
way  West  despite  this  opposition — despite  The  resort 
even  the  discouragement  of  their  greatest  to  force, 
leader,  Frederick  Douglass,  who  advised  them  to  the  con 
trary,  believing  that  it  would  be  better  for  the  blacks  to  re 
main  in  the  South  where  they  would  have  sufficient  num 
bers  to  wield  political  power.  The  promoters  of  the 
movement  were  fortunate  in  having  the  support  of  Richard 
T.  Greener  and  John  M.  Langston,  who,  having  sufficient 
foresight  to  see  that  the  United  States  Government  would 
not  soon  interfere  in  behalf  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South, 
advised  them  to  flee  from  political  oppression  to  a  free 
country,  considering  it  a  hopeful  sign  that  the  blacks  had 
passed  through  that  stage  of  development  of  appealing  to 
philanthropy  into  that  of  appealing  to  themselves. 

This  rapid  migration  was  soon  checked,  but  the  Negroes 
gradually  continued  to  go  West  into  the  industrial  centers 
of  the  Appalachian  mountains  and  into  the  Southwest.  The 
masses  of  the  Negroes,  however,  became  set-  The  migration 
tied  in  the  South  in  a  condition  not  much  checked, 
better  than  their  former  state ;  for  the  planters  forgot  their 
promises  of  better  treatment  just  as  soon  as  the  exodus 
ceased.  The  economic  adjustment  after  the  Civil  War, 
culminating  in  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  in  1879, 
moreover,  brightened  somewhat  the  dark  age  through  which 
the  South  was  passing.  During  the  eighties  and  nineties  the 
masses  of  Negroes  could  do  little  more  than  merely  eke  out 
an  existence,  but  following  this  period  some  of  them  pros 
pered  sufficiently  to  appreciate  the  difference  between  free 
and  slave  labor.  The  income  of  the  average  Negro  even 
then,  however,  was  very  small.  The  most  fortunate  Negro 
tenants  or  farmers  did  not  generally  come  to  the  end  of  the 
year  with  more  than  they  needed  to  keep  them  while  pro- 


266 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


ducing  their  crop  during  the  next.  The  rural  wage  earner 
did  well  to  receive  for  his  toil,  from  sunrise  to  sunset, 
twenty-five  or  thirty  cents  a  day,  including  board  restricted 
to  half  a  gallon  of  meal  and  half  a  pound  of  fat  bacon.  Me 
chanics  believed  that  they  were  highly  favored  when  they 
earned  from  seventy-five  cents  to  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day. 
In  the  midst  of  such  circumstances,  the  Negroes  could 
not  establish  homes  and 
educate  their  children. 
It  was  of  much  assistance 
to  the  Negroes  in  the 
Education  South,  how- 
tried,  ever,  that  the 
North  raised  considerable 
money  and  sent  some  of 
her  best  citizens  to  found 
institutions  for  the  en 
lightenment  of  the  freed- 
men.  This  philanthropic 
scheme  presupposed  that 
education  in  the  classi 
cal  field  was  the  urgent 
need  of  Negroes,  in  that 
it  was  essential  to  a  proper  understanding  of  the  prob 
lems  of  government,  and  that  when  this  was  supplied 
the  masses  thus  enlightened  would  have  an  advantage 
by  which  they  could  triumph  over  all  opposition.  Heed 
ing  this  call  to  avail  themselves  of  such  opportunities, 
Negroes  riot  only  crowded  these  institutions,  like  Howard, 
Fisk,  Lincoln,  Morehouse,  and  Atlanta,  but  began  to 
establish  higher  institutions  of  their  own.  Out  of  these 
schools  came  not  many  scholars,  but  enthusiastic  teach 
ers  devoted  to  the  enlightenment  of  their  people,  a  large 
number  of  race-leading  preachers  proclaiming  religion  as 
the  solution  of  the  problem,  many  well  informed  orators, 


J.  C.  PRICE 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape 


267 


like  J.  C.  Price  and  William  Pickens,  and  educating  con 
troversialists,  like  Kelly  Miller  and  W.  E.  B.  DuBois. 
Under  different  conditions  these  men,  no  doubt,  would  have 
been  historians,  scientists,  or  mathematicians,  but  their  race 
was  passing  through  the  ordeal  of  kith  and  kin  democracy, 
and  their  talent  had  to  be  impressed  into  the  service  of 

exposing  the  folly  of 
the  reactionaries  promo 
ting  the  return  to  me 
dieval  civilization  in 
proscribing  the  citizen 
ship  of  the  Negroes. 

The  majority  of  the 
Negroes  in  the  South 
finally  be-  Resignation 
came  set-  to  fate, 
tied  to  conditions  as 
they  were,  endeavoring 
to  make  the  most  of 
a  n  undesirable  situa 
tion;  but  Negroes  who, 
having  experienced  men 
tal  development,  had 
had  their  hearts  fired 
with  the  desire  to  enjoy  the  rights  so  eloquently  set  forth 
by  their  uncompromising  leaders,  endeavored  to  escape 
from  their  political  and  civic  humiliation.  To  these  Ne 
groes  of  talent  it  seemed  that  the  South  would  never 
be  a  decent  place  to  live  in,  especially  when  the  North 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  pleadings  of  their  spokesmen 
sent  thither  to  portray  to  the  children  of  the  Negroes' 
form.er  friends  exactly  how  the  fruits  of  their  victory 
for  human  rights  had  been  permitted  seemingly  to  perish 
from  the  earth.  After  the  reconstruction  period,  the 
North  was  too  busy  in  developing  its  industries  and  had  es- 


KELLY  MILLER 


268  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

tablished  too  close  relations  with  the  South  to  think  of 
severing  these  ties.  The  prevailing  opinion  was  that  the 
South  should  be  permitted  to  deal  with  the  Negroes  as  it 
felt  disposed. 

As  the  South,  in  this  position  of  renewed  supremacy,  be 
came  increasingly  intolerant  of  the  talented  f  reedmen,  many 
of  them  left.  To  this  the  whites  offered  no  objection  what- 
Cnielty  of  ever.  The  exodus  of  the  intelligent  Negroes 
the  restored  was  much  desired  by  the  southerners,  for  every 
one  migrating  diminished  the  chances  of  the 
Negro  for  mental  development,  a  thing  which  most  south 
erners  believed  spoils  the  Negro.  It  has  been  the  policy  of 
most  Anglo-Saxon  nations  to  keep  in  ignorance  the  exploited 
races,  that  in  their  ignorant  state  the  one  group  may  be 
arrayed  against  the  other  to  prevent  them  from  reaching 
the  point  of  self-assertion.  In  keeping  with  that  same 
policy  southerners  would  not  only  not  encourage  but  would 
have  little  dealing  with  the  talented  Negroes,  and  in  mak 
ing  desire  father  to  the  thought,  insisted  that  there  were  no 
intelligent  Negroes.  Well  might  some  sections  reasonably 
reach  this  conclusion  as  to  the  mental  development  of  the 
Negroes,  if  it  is  to  be  judged  by  the  amount  of  money 
spent  for  their  education.  In  its  backward  state  the  South 
could  not  afford  large  appropriations  for  education,  but  in 
most  of  the  districts  the  Negro  public  schools  were  almost  a 
mockery,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  State  industrial 
schools  almost  no  provision  at  all  was  made  for  the  higher 
education  of  the  Negro  after  the  undoing  of  reconstruc 
tion. 

In  the  effort  to  get  away  from  the  South  there  was  a 
renewal  of  the  colonization  scheme  under  the  leadership  of 
Colonization  Bishop  H.  M.  Turner.  With  the  encourage- 
again,  ment  of  Senator  Morgan  of  Alabama,  who, 
after  the  reactionaries  had  well  completed  the  task  of 
depriving  the  Negroes  of  their  rights,  felt  that  they  should 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape 


269 


then  go  to  a  foreign  land  to  develop  independently  a  nation 
of  their  own,  it  seemed  that  the  plan  might  prove  feasible. 
Some  thought  again  of  Africa  as  the  place  of  refuge,  but 
the  memory  of  the  antebellum  struggle  of  the  free  Negroes 
to  defeat  that  enterprise 
made  that  continent  too 
frightening  to  attract 
many.  In  the  early  nine 
ties,  a  few  Negroes  emi 
grated  to  Mapimi,  Mexico, 
from  which,  after  some 
hardships,  they  returned 
to  their  homes  in  Georgia 
and  Alabama.  Resorting 
to  Africa  then,  197  Ne 
groes  sailed  from  Savan 
nah,  Georgia,  for  Liberia 
in  1895.  The  expedition 
to  Liberia  was  not  as  un 
successful  as  that  to  Mex 
ico,  but  the  deportationists  soon  discovered  in  carrying 
out  their  plan  that  it  is  impossible  to  expatriate  a  whole 
race. 

Many  of  the  talented  Negroes  who  had  been  conspicuous 
in  politics,  thereafter  decided  to  yield  to  the  white  man's 
control,  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  accumulation  oi 
wealth.  But,  as  hell  is  never  full  and  the  eyes  Terrorism, 
of  man  are  never  satisfied,  the  mere  domination  did  not 
meet  all  of  the  requirements  of  the  degraded  class  of  whites. 
Slavery  had  made  them  brutal.  They  had  been  accustomed 
to  drive,  to  mutilate,  to  kill  Negroes,  and  such  traits  could 
not  be  easily  removed.  The  reign  of  terror,  ostensibly 
initiated  to  overthrow  the  carpet-bag  governments  by  means 
of  the  Ku  Klux  Klan,  continued,  and  it  became  a  special 
delight  for  the  poor  whites  to  humiliate  and  persecute  the 


BISHOP  H.  M.   TURNER,  a  fearless 
spokesman  for  his  people 


270  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Negroes  who  had  acquired  education  and  accumulated  some 
wealth.  The  effort  was  to  make  the  Negro  realize  that  he 
lives  in  a  white  man 's  country  in  which  law  for  the  Negro  is 
the  will  of  the  white  man  with  whom  he  meets.  The  Negroes 
had  to  undergo  punishment  for  presuming  to  assume  the 
reins  of  government  during  the  reconstruction.  They  had 
to  be  convinced  that  this  country  will  never  permit  another 
such  revolution.  Further  legislation  to  restrict  suffrage  in- 
alterably  to  the  whites  as  a  majority,  to  deprive  Negroes  of 
the  right  to  serve  in  the  State  Militia,  to  segregate  them  in 
public  conveyances,  and  exclude  them  from  places  of  enter 
tainment,  soon  followed  as  a  necessity  for  maintaining 
white  supremacy,  so  precarious  has  its  tenure  at  times 
seemed. 

At  the  same  time  the  laboring  Negroes  not  only  saw  them 
selves  overwhelmed  by  a  rent  and  credit  system  which  would 
not  pass  away,  but  lost  further  ground  in  the  new  form  of 
slavery  called  peonage,  which  once  had  legal  sanction  in 
Alabama,  Florida,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  North  Carolina, 
Peonage.  and  South  Carolina.  This  was  a  sort  of  in 

voluntary  servitude  by  which  the  laborer  is  considered 
bound  to  serve  his  master  until  a  debt  he  has  contracted 
is  paid.  The  origin  of  this  was  in  a  custom  in  Mexico, 
and  the  opportunity  lay  in  the  poverty  of  the  Negroes 
who  had  to  borrow  from  the  whites.  In  working  to  pay 
these  debts  they  must  still  borrow  to  live.  As  the  white 
man  was  the  bookkeeper  and  his  statement  of  account  was 
law  in  the  courts,  it  was  the  former  master's  prerogative 
to  say  how  much  the  peon  owed,  to  determine  exactly  when 
he  should  leave  his  service,  or  whether  he  should  ever  leave. 

Peons  during  these  years  were  recruited  from  another 
source.  In  collusion  with  courts  arranging  with  the  police 
Peonage  and  to  arrest  a  required  number  of  Negroes  to 
the  courts.  secure  the  desired  amount  in  fees  and  fines,  in 
nocent  Negroes  were  commonly  arrested,  and  when  fined  in 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  271 

court  had  to  agree  to  enter  the  service  of  some  white  man, 
who  would  pay  their  fines  for  the  opportunity  to  reduce 
them  to  involuntary  servitude.  A  brief  account  from  one  of 
these  peonage  districts  is  sufficient  to  illustrate  this  point. 
Passing  along  the  street  where  a  Negro  was  employed  by  a 
white  man,  a  sympathetic  observer  noticed  that  his  employer 
frequently  kicked  and  cuffed  the  Negro  when  he  was  not 
working  satisfactorily.  ' '  Why  do  you  stand  this  ?  Why  do 
you  not  have  this  man  arrested  for  assault?"  inquired  the 
observer.  "That  is  just  the  trouble  now,"  responded  the 
Negro..  "I  complained  to  the  court  when  another  white 
man  beat  me,  and  the  judge  imposed  upon  me  a  fine 
which  I  could  not  pay,  so  I  have  to  work  it  out  in  the 
service  of  this  man  who  paid  it  to  have  the  opportunity 
to  force  me  to  work  for  him."  The  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  undertook  to  put  an  end  to  such  legis 
lation  in  1911  by  declaring  the  Alabama  peonage  law  un 
constitutional,  but  in  the  many  districts  where  there  is 
no  healthy  public  opinion  to  the  contrary  or  where  the 
employer  is  a  law  unto  himself,  peonage  has  continued 
in  spite  of  the  feeble  effort  of  the  Federal  Government 
to  eradicate  the  evil. 

These  increasing  encroachments  convinced  many  think 
ing  Negroes  that  they  should  no  longer  endure  such 
humiliation.  They  could  not  adequately  educate  their 
children  at  public  expense,  although  taxed  to  Negroes  go- 
support  the  public  schools ;  they  enjoyed  little  ***•&  North, 
security  in  the  possession  of  property,  and  dared  not  defend 
their  families  from  insult.  Their  first  thought,  then,  was 
to  go  North.  For  more  than  a  century  the  North,  de 
spite  its  lack  of  hospitality  for  the  Negroes,  had  remained 
in  their  minds  as  a  place  of  refuge.  From  time  imme 
morial  Negroes  had  gone  to  that  section,  and  sometimes 
in  considerable  numbers.  During  the  nineties  and  the 
first  decade  of  the  present  century  these  numbers  decidedly 


272  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

increased  and  brought  nearer  home  to  the  North  the  so- 
called  race  problem. 

There  went  first  the  dethroned  politicians  who,  when 
failing  to  secure  employment  in  Washington,  endeavored 
to  solve  the  problem  by  migration.  A  few  Negroes  well 
Politicians  established  in  business,  moreover,  closed  up 

leaving  the  their  affairs  and  moved  out.  The  educated  Ne- 
South. 

groes — especially  the  Negro  college  graduates 

who  were  imbued  with  the  principles  of  justice  set  forth 
by  Pickens,  Trotter  and  DuBois — had  too  much  appreciation 
for  freedom  to  remain  longer  where  they  were  politically 
and  socially  proscribed.  A  few  professional  men,  who  under 
the  undesirable  conditions  were  reduced  to  want,  also  made 
their  escape.  Intelligent  laborers  who  knew  that  they  were 
not  receiving  the  proper  returns  from  their  labor  tired  also 
of  the  ordeal  and  went  in  due  time  to  try  life  in  other  parts. 
In  fact,  this  slow  but  steady  migration  was  a  gradual  draw 
ing  off  from  the  South  of  the  most  advanced  classes,  those 
best  qualified  to  lead  the  race  more  rapidly  toward  achieve 
ment.  In  its  backward  state,  however,  the  South  could  not 
appreciate  this  loss,  so  willing  has  it  been  to  pay  the  high 
cost  of  race  prejudice. 

The  undesirable  feature  of  this  migration  was  that  it 
was  mainly  to  the  cities.  The  hostility  of  the  trades  unions 
to  the  Negroes  was  already  a  handicap  rendering  their 
The  rush  presence  in  large  northern  cities  a  problem, 

to  cities.  an(j  the  increase  Of  numbers  resulting  from 

this  influx  aggravated  the  situation.  It  was  further  aggra 
vated  in  the  course  of  time  when,  because  of  the  increasing 
popularity  of  the  North,  many  Negroes  "just  happened"  to 
go.  Some  went  on  excursions  to  Columbus,  Indianapolis, 
Chicago,  Cleveland,  and  the  like,  and  never  returned  South. 
In  the  North,  moreover,  educated  Negroes  had  to  follow 
drudgery  rather  than  to  practice  professions  or  work  at 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  273 

skilled  labor  as  they  could  in  the  South.  They  were  willing, 
however,  to  pay  this  price  for  social  and  political  rights, 
hoping  that  at  some  time  the  fates  would  bring  it  to  pass 
that  they  would  secure  an  economic  foundation  in  the  North. 
The  attainment  of  this  end,  notwithstanding  some  encourag 
ing  events,  however,  has  been  a  battle  against  well-estab 
lished  precedents  in  the  effort  to  maintain  the  economic  su 
premacy  of  the  laboring  whites,  who  feel  that  they  should 
not  be  compelled  to  compete  with  Negroes.  In  labor,  as  in 
other  things,  they  contend,  the  sphere  of  great  remuneration 
must  be  restricted  to  the  white  man,  and  drudgery  to  the 
Negro. 

Some  systematic  efforts  were  made  to  break  down  the 
barriers  of  these  trades  unions.  "White  men,  like  Eugene  V. 
Debs,  high  in  the  councils  of  these  bodies,  attacked  this 
medieval  attitude  of  the  white  laborers,  but  to  no  avail. 
As  Negroes  in  the  North  and  West,  therefore,  Trades  unions, 
were  pitted  against  the  trades  unions,  they  embittered  much 
the  feeling  between  the  races  by  allying  themselves  with  the 
capitalists  to  serve  as  strike  breakers.  In  this  case,  how 
ever,  the  trades  unions  themselves  were  to  be  blamed.  The 
only  time  the  Negroes  could  work  under  such  circumstances 
was  when  the  whites  were  striking,  and  it  is  not  surprising 
that  some  of  them  easily  yielded  then  to  the  temptation. 
In  those  unions  in  which  the  Negroes  were  recognized  they 
stood  with  their  white  coworkers  in  every  instance  of  mak 
ing  a  reasonable  demand  of  their  employers.  Some  of  these 
unions,  however,  accepted  Negroes  merely  as  a  subterfuge 
to  prevent  them  from  engaging  in  strike-breaking.  When 
the  Negroes  appealed  for  work,  identifying  themselves  as 
members  of  the  union  in  control,  they  were  turned  away 
with  the  explanation  that  no  vacancies  existed,  while  white 
men  were  gladly  received. 

As  a  rule,  therefore,  the  Negroes  migrating  to  the  North 


274  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

had  to  do  menial  service.  It  was  pathetic  for  the  traveler 
to  see  Negroes,  once  well  established  in  a  business  in  the 
In  menial  South,  reduced  to  service  as  porters  to  earn  a 
service.  living  in  the  North.  The  Negroes  were  so 

scattered  in  the  North  that  they  did  not  supply  the  oppor 
tunity  for  mutual  help,  and  since  the  whites  were  not 
willing-  to  concede  economic  opportunity  the  northern  Ne 
groes  were,  so  to  speak,  isolated  in  the  midst  of  a  medieval 
civilization  founded  on  the  caste  of  color.  While  the  migrat 
ing  Negroes  of  intelligence  hid  their  lights  under  a  bushel 
in  the  North,  the  illiterate  Negroes  in  the  South,  in  need  of 
their  assistance  in  education  and  enterprise,  too  often  fell 
Results  in  into  the  hands  of  the  harpies  and  sharks, 
the  South.  many  of  whom  had  the  assistance  of  un 
scrupulous  Negroes  in  plundering  these  unfortunates. 

There  came  forward  then  a  Negro  with  a  new  idea. 
He  said  to  his  race :  ' '  Cast  down  your  buckets  where  you 
are. ' '  In  other  words,  the  Negroes  must  work  out  their  sal 
vation  in  the  South.  He  was  a  native  of  Virginia.  He  had 
Booker  T.  keen  trained  at  Hampton  and  under  adverse 
Washington's  circumstances  had  founded  a  school  in  Ala 
bama,  affording  him  the  opportunity  to  study 
the  Negroes  in  all  their  aspects.  Seeing  that  the  need  of 
the  Negro  was  a  foundation  in  things  economic,  he  came 
forward  with  the  bold  advocacy  of  industrial  education  of 
the  Negroes  "in  those  arts  and  crafts  in  which  they  are 
now  employed  and  in  which  they  must  exhibit  greater  effi 
ciency  if  they  are  to  compete  with  the  white  men."  The 
world  had  heard  this  before,  but  never  had  an  educator  so 
expounded  this  doctrine  as  to  move  the  millions.  This  man 
was  Booker  T.  Washington. 

The  celebrated  pronunciamento  of  Washington  was  set 
forth  in  his  address  at  the  Atlanta  Exposition  in  1895,  and 
his  educational  theory  and  practice  have  not  since  ceased 
to  be  a  universal  topic.  He  insisted  that  since  the  Negroes 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape 


275 


had  to  toil  they  should  be  taught  to  toil  skillfully.  He  did 
not  openly  attack  higher  education  for  Negroes,  but  insisted 
that  in  getting  an  education  they  should  be  The  Atlanta 
sure  to  get  some  of  that  which  they  can  use.  Address. 
In  other  words,  the  only  education  worth  while  is  that  which 
reacts  on  one's  life  in  his 
peculiar  situation.  A 
youth,  then,  should  not  be 
educated  away  from  his 
environment,  but  trained 
to  lay  a  foundation  for 
the  future  in  his  present 
situation,  out  of  which  he 
may  emerge  into  something 
above  and  beyond  his  be 
ginnings. 

Washington 's  plan  was 
received  by  the  white  peo 
ple  in  the  South  as  a  safe 
means  by  which  they  could 
promote  Negro  education 
along  lines  different  from 
those  followed  in  the  edu 
cation  of  the  white  man, 
so  as  to  make  education 
mean  one  thing  for  the  whites  and  another  for  the  Negroes. 
The  North  was  at  first  divided  on  the  ques-  Washington's 
tion.  The  sympathetic  class  felt  that  such  a  Plan  accepted, 
policy  would  reduce  the  Negroes  as  a  whole  to  a  class  of 
laborers  and  thus  bar  them  from  the  higher  walks  of  life 
through  which  the  race  must  come  to  recognition  and  promi 
nence.  The  wealthy  class  of  whites  in  the  North  took  the 
position  that  there  was  much  wisdom  in  Washington's 
policy,  and  with  the  encouragement  which  they  have  given 
his  industrial  program,  with  the  millions  with  which  they 


BOOKER  T.  WASHINGTON 


276 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Have  endowed  Tuskegee  and  Hampton,  and  the  support 
given  the  many  other  schools  established  on  that  basis, 
they,  in  less  than  a  generation,  have  brought  most  northern 
people  around  to  their  way  of  thinking. 

The  Negroes,  however,  with  exception  of  a  small  minority, 
regarded  this  policy  as  a 
surrender  to  the  oppres 
sors  who  desired  to  re 
duce  the  whole  race  to 
menial  service,  and  they 
proceeded  militantly  to 
attack  Washington,  brand- 
Opposition  to  ing  him  with 
Washington.  t  ft  e  oppro 
brium  of  a  traitor  to  his 
people.  In  the  course  of 
time,  however,  when  the 
South,  following  the  ad 
vice  and  example  of  Wash 
ington,  reconstructed  its 
educational  system  for 
Negroes  and  began  to  sup 
ply  these  schools  with  fac 
ulties  recommended  by 
men  interested  in  indus 
trial  education  and  too 

often  by  Washington  himself,  there  were  gradually  elevated 
to  leadership  many  Negroes  who,  in  standing  for  industrial 
education,  largely  increased  the  support  of  Washington 
among  his  people.  When,  moreover,  his  influence  as  an 
educator  extended  into  all  ramifications  of  life,  even  into 
politics,  to  the  extent  that  he  dictated  the  rise  and  fall  of 
all  Negroes  occupying  positions  subject  to  the  will  of  the 
whites,  that  constituency  was  so  generally  increased  that 
before  he  died  there  were  few  Negroes  who  dared  criticize 


W.  E.  B.  DuBois 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape 


277 


him  in  public  or  let  it  be  known  that  they  were  not  in 
sympathy  with  his  work. 

Against  this  policy,  however,  there  always  stood  forth 
some  Negroes  who  would  not  yield  ground.    The  most  out 
spoken  among  these  were  W.  M.  Trotter  and  W.  E.  B. 
DuBois.     These  men  have  had  the  idea  that     Trotter  and 
the  first  efforts  to  secure  recognition  for  the     DuBois- 
Negro    must   come    through    agitation    for   higher   educa 
tion  and  political  equality. 
What    they     demand     for 
the  Negro  is  the  same  op 
portunity,  the  same  treat 
ment,   generally  given  the 
white  man.    To  accept  any 
thing  less  means  treachery. 
Feeling  that  Washington's 
position  was  a  compromise 
on  these  things,  they  per 
sistently     denounced     him 
from     the     rostrum     and 
through  the  press  in  spite 
of  the  great  personal  sac 
rifices  which  they  thereby 
suffered.     DuBois  lost  the 
support  of  white  friends  who  cannot  understand  why  all 
Negroes  do  not  think  alike,  and  Trotter  suffered  unusual 
humiliation  because  he  undertook  by  unlawful  means  to 
break  up  one  of  Washington's  meetings  in  Boston. 

This  agitation  has  exhibited  evidences  of  unusual  vitality. 
It  has  given  rise  to  widely  circulated  organs  which  stand 
for  equal  rights  and  equal  opportunities — in  short,  for  a 
square  deal  for  all  men  regardless  of  race,  color  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude.  One  of  these,  The  Crisis,  is  now  a 
self-supporting  popular  magazine  with  a  circulation  of 
almost  100,000.  It  is  the  organ  of  the  National  Association 


OSWALD   GARRISON   VILLARD 


278 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


for  the  Advancement  of  Colored  People,  a  movement 
launched  by  the  remnant  of  the  abolition  and  reform  ele 
ment  of  the  North,  in  connection  with  the  militant  Negroes. 
The  personnel  of  the  management  of  the  Association  is  com 
posed  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  Negroes  and  white  men 

and  women  of  the  country. 
Among  these  are  Oswald 
Garrison  V  i  1 1  a  r  d,  the 
grandson  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison ;  Moorfield  Storey, 
one  of  the  most  prominent 
members  of  the  American 
Bar;  Joel  E.  Spingarn, 
a  scholar  of  national  repu 
tation;  Jane  Addams,  the 
social  reformer;  and  A. 
H.  Grimke,  a  fearless  ad 
vocate  of  equality  for  all. 
While  the  Association  and 
its  promoters  may  have  at 
times  gone  rather  far  in 
blaming  Washington  for 
his  silence,  it  has  neverthe 
less  kept  before  the  Ne 
groes  the  ideal  which  they  must  attain  if  they  are  to  count 
as  a  significant  factor  in  this  country. 

Washington's  long  silence  as  to  the  rights  of  the  Negro, 
however,  did  not  necessarily  mean  that  he  was  in  favor  of 
the  oppression  of  the  race.  He  was  aware  of  the  fact  that 
An  unjust  the  mere  agitation  for  political  rights  could 
criticism.  not  at  that  tjme  be  Of  much  benefit  to  the  race, 

and  that  their  economic  improvement,  a  thing  fundamental 
in  real  progress,  could  easily  be  promoted  without  incurring 
the  disapproval  of  the  discordant  elements  in  the  South.  He 
may  be  justly  criticized  for  permitting  himself  to  be  drawn 


MOORFIELD  STOREY,  President  of  the 
National  Association  for  the  Ad 
vancement  of  Colored  People 


Finding  a  Way  of  Escape  279 

into  certain  entanglements  in  which  he  of  necessity  had  to 
make  some  blunders.  As  an  educator,  however,  he  stands 
out  as  the  greatest  of  all  Americans,  the  only  man  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere  who  has  succeeded  in  effecting  a  revo 
lution  in  education.  A  few  centuries  hence,  when  this  coun 
try  becomes  sufficiently  civilized  to  stand  the  truth  about 
the  Negro,  history  will  record  that  Booker  T.  Washington, 
in  trying  to  elevate  his  oppressed  people,  so  admirably 
connected  education  with  the  practical  things  of  life  that 
he  effected  such  a  reform  in  the  education  of  the  world  as 
to  place  himself  in  the  class  with  Pestalozzi,  Froebel  and 
Herbart.  The  Negroes  as  a  whole  have  little  to  say  now 
against  his  educational  policy,  seeing  that  the  white  people 
have  realized  that  industrial  education  is  not  only  a  good 
thing  for  the  Negro  but  a  blessing  to  the  white  man.  The 
whites  have  accordingly  proceeded  to  spend  millions  of  dol 
lars  for  buildings  and  equipment  to  secure  these  advantages 
to  their  youth.  Washington's  advocacy  of  industrial  educa 
tion,  moreover,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said,  was  not 
a  death  blow  to  higher  education  for  the  Negro.  That 
movement  has  lived  in  spite  of  opposition,  and  Wash 
ington  himself  frequently  stated  that  industrial  education, 
as  he  emphasized  it,  was  for  the  masses  of  the  people  who 
had  to  toil.  He  did  not  object  to  higher  education,  knowing 
that  the  race  had  to  have  men  to  lead  it  onward. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ACHIEVEMENTS  IN  FREEDOM 

DURING  the  years  when  the  Negroes  have  had  all  sorts 
of  advice  as  to  how  they  might  emerge  from  the  muddle  of 
controversy  about  the  best  solution  of  their  problems,  they 
An  era  of  have  not  all  spent  their  time  in  academic  dis- 
progress.  cussion.  Building  upon  the  foundation  that 

they  made  before  the  Civil  War,  the  Negroes  have  developed 
into  one  of  the  most  constructive  elements  in  our  economic 
system.1  The  census  of  1910  shows  that  although  the  Ne 
groes  constitute  about  thirty  per  cent  of  the  population  of 
the  South,  more  than  half  of  the  agricultural  laborers  of 
that  section  are  Negroes.  In  the  main,  moreover,  the  Ne 
groes  are  useful  citizens,  showing  little  tendency  to  become 
peddlers,  agents,  and  impostors  who  make  their  living  rob 
bing  the  people.  On  the  corners  of  the  streets  in  some  cities 
there  may  be  found  a  few  Negroes  who  are  not  disposed  to 
work  for  a  living,  but  these  constitute  a  small  fraction  of 
one  per  cent  of  the  Negro  population  of  the  United  States. 

The  census  reports  will  help  us  further  to  determine 
what  the  Negroes  in  this  country  have  been  doing.  In  1910, 
5,192,535,  or  71  per  cent,  of  the  7,317,922  Negroes  between 

i  The  statistics  bearing  on  the  progress  of  the  Negro  are  found 
in  the  United  States  Census  Reports.  Other  valuable  facts  may  be 
obtained  from  Monroe  N.  Work's  Negro  Year  Book  and  the  files  of 
The  Crisis.  There  is  also  Mr.  Henry  E.  Baker's  informing  article  on 
The  Negro  in  the  Field  of  Invention  (in  the  Journal  of  Negro  His 
tory,  II,  21-36).  Dr.  Thomas  J.  Jones's  Negro  Education  in  two 
volumes  throws  light  on  what  has  been  going  on  in  that  field  during 
the  last  half  century. 

280 


Achievements  In  Freedom  281 

the  ages  of  10  years  and  over  were  engaged  in  agriculture, 
forestry  and  animal  husbandry.  In  the  number  employed 
in  agriculture  are  included  893,370  farmers,  Occupations 
planters  and  overseers ;  218,972  were  owners,  of  N®^068- 
672,964  tenants,  and  1,434  managers.  Owners  free  of  debt 
possessed  8,835,857  acres,  owners  having  mortgaged  farms 
had  4,011,491,  and  part  owners  2,844,188.  There  were 
12,876,308  acres  operated  by  cash  tenants;  13,691,494 
by  share  tenants,  and  349,779  by  managers.  This  area  of 
42,279,510  acres  will  appear  more  realistic  when  one  real 
izes  that  it  is  as  large  as  New  England,  or  Belgium  and 
Holland  combined. 

The  field  in  which  most  Negroes  have  been  employed  is 
agriculture,  and  next  to  that  domestic  and  personal  service. 
While  in  most  of  the  unskilled  occupations  the  Negroes 
constitute  a  larger  percentage  than  their  per-  Unskilled 
centage  of  the  entire  population,  the  increasing  labor- 
number  of  skilled  laborers  has  reduced  the  percentage  of 
unskilled  laborers  from  a  very  high  mark  to  about  seventy 
per  cent.  The  standard  of  the  unskilled  laborer,  moreover, 
has  been  raised,  peonage  has  been  gradually  giving  way  to 
a  system  of  wages,  the  intelligence  of  the  workmen  has  in 
creased,  and  the  Negro  laborers  have  become  so  dependable 
that  despite  the  large  influx  of  immigrants  they  have  been 
able  to  withstand  the  competition.  So  much  improvement 
in  the  Negro  unskilled  laborer  has  been  made  during  the 
last  generation  that  his  increasing  efficiency  has  rendered 
difficult  the  distinction  between  skilled  and  unskilled  labor. 

Eecent  statistics  as  to  the  number  of  Negroes  employed 
at  skilled  labor  will  further  emphasize  this  point.    Accord 
ing  to  the  census  of  1910  there  were  among  the  males  12,401 
brick   and   stone   masons,    9,727   blacksmiths,        skilled 
8,035  glaziers,  painters  and  varnishers,  6,175        labor- 
plasterers,  5,188  locomotive  firemen,  4,802  stationary  engi 
neers,    3,296   machinists    and   millwrights,    2,304    coopers, 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


Achievements  In  .Freedom 


283 


2,285  plumbers,  and  gas  and  steam  fitters,  2,156  molders, 
and  4,652  tailors.  At  the  same  time  there  were  among  the 
females,  38,148  dressmakers  and  seamstresses,  8,267  opera 
tors  in  cigar  and  tobacco  factories,  and  6,163  employed  in 
general  manufacturing. 

Building  upon  these  achievements  in  labor,  the  Negroes 
have  towered  higher  and  higher  in  the  professions.    In  1910 


THE  RESIDENCE  OF  MADAME  C.  J.  WALKER 

one  Negro  out  of  every  146  was  engaged  in  some  profes 
sional  pursuit,  whereas  one  white  person  in     Negroes  in 
every  51  was  thus  engaged.     The  proportion     Professions, 
of   clergymen   among   Negroes  exceeded    that    among   the 
whites,  but  in  the  other  cases  the  whites  showed  the  excess 
of  the  ratio  of  population  to  professional  workers.    While  it 
appears  that  professions  among  Negroes  are  still  under 
manned,  a  decided  increase  in  this  direction  has  been  noted 
during  the  last  generation.    It  means  a  great  deal  to  be  able 
after  fifty  years  of  freedom  to  produce  29,485   teachers, 


284  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

5,606  musicians  and  teachers  of  music,  3,077  physicians  and 
surgeons,  478  dentists,  798  lawyers,  123  chemists,  329 
artists,  sculptors  and  teachers  of  art,  247  authors,  editors 
and  reporters,  59  architects,  and  237  civil  engineers.  That 
they  have  in  half  a  century  achieved  enough  in  the  profes 
sions  to  bring  them  within  the  range  of  comparison  with 
the  whites  is  striking  evidence  of  the  ability  of  the  Negro 
to  meet  the  test  of  competition. 

This  growing  usefulness  of  the  Negro  in  the  new  fields  has 
meant  a  corresponding  reduction  in  the  numbers  of  those 
disposed  to  waste  their  time.  The  criminal  class  of  the 
Less  crime.  Negroes  in  America,  therefore,  has  decidedly 
improved,  despite  the  reports  to  the  contrary.  These  false 
alarms  are  based  largely  on  unwarranted  charges  growing 
out  of  the  convict  lease  system  and  the  imposition  of  unjust 
fines  for  ordinary  misdemeanors  and  such  petty  offenses 
as  vagrancy.  The  attitude  of  the  Negroes  themselves  to 
ward  maintaining  the  peace  is  well  reflected  in  their  efforts 
to  better  conditions  by  establishing  law  and  order  leagues 
working  in  cooperation  with  the  local  governments.  To 
further  this  cause  the  Negroes  have  had  the  cooperation  of 
the  Southern  Sociological  Congress  and  the  University  Race 
Commission,  which,  although  far  from  being  unbiased,  have 
done  some  good.  These  organizations  are  endeavoring  to 
investigate  the  causes  of  the  crimes  of  the  whites  against 
Negroes,  as  well  as  crimes  of  the  latter.  Both  races  have 
been  much  aided  by  the  abolition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

The  actual  forces  which  have  in  general  effected  the  im 
provement  in  the  Negro  race,  however,  have  been  strictly 
Negro  organizations  themselves.  Chief  among  these  are  the 
Negro  churches,  social  welfare  agencies,  and  schools.  In 
Churches  as  1906  the  Negroes  of  white  denominations  had 
factors.  6,210  churches  with  514,571  communicants, 

5,330  Sunday  schools,  293,292  scholars,  and  property  worth 
$12,107,655.     The  independent  Negro  denominations  had 


Achievements  In  Freedom  285 

33,220  churches  with  3,789,898  communicants,  30,999  Sun 
day  schools,  1,452,095  scholars,  arid  property  valued  at 
$45,191,422.  These  churches  are  in  the  main  Baptist  and 
Methodist.  While  the  latter  are  divided  into  three  groups, 
known  as  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  and  the  Colored 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  the  Baptists  had  until  the 
schism  of  1916  only  one  national  organization,  exercising 
loose  supervision  over  the  whole  denomination.  Although 
smaller  in  numbers,  however,  these  various  Methodist 
churches  have,  by  their  well  constructed  organizations,  been 
able  to  accomplish  much  in  the  extension  of  religion  and 
education  through  their  thirty-six  well-informed  bishops 
and  enterprising  general  officers.  The  work  of  other  de 
nominations,  like  the  Episcopalians,  the  Presbyterians,  Con- 
gregationalists  and  the  Catholics,  has  also  been  very  effective 
in  Negro  uplift  wherever  they  have  secured  a  following. 

Cooperating  with  these  have  come  the  3,077  physicians, 
surgeons,  and  dentists,  preachers  of  health,  supplementing 
the  work  of  the  ministers  of  the  gospel.  They  have  been  able 
to  call  the  attention  of  entire  communities  to  Physicians, 
the  necessity  of  observing  the  laws  of  health  and  of  making 
the  community  a  decent  place  to  live  in.  These  well-trained 
men  have  therefore  been  able  to  supplement  the  work  of 
the  Anti-Tuberculosis  League  and  the  American  Hygiene 
Association  and  to  extend  the  operations  of  the  annual 
school  conferences  held  at  Atlanta  University,  Hampton, 
and  Tuskegee.  So  much  good  has  been  recently  accom 
plished  by  the  staff  of  workers  lecturing  to  the  soldiers  in 
the  camps  on  social  hygiene  that  national  bodies  promoting 
health  are  now  paying  more  attention  to  the  problems  of 
Negroes.  As  a  result  of  this  persistent  struggle  against 
io-norance,  poverty  and  negligence,  the  mortality  rate 
among  Negroes  has  decreased  and  much  improvement  has 
been  noted  in  their  physique. 


286  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

To  do  for  the  race  some  of  the  things  which  the  church 
has  not  accomplished,  social  welfare  work  was  undertaken 
among  Negroes  decades  ago.  The  first  colored  Young  Men 's 
Christian  Association  was  organized  in  Washington,  D.  C., 
Work  of  the  in  1853  by  Anthony  Bowen,  a  man  of  color ; 
Y.  M.  0.  A.  the  secon(j  jn  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in 
1866 ;  and  the  third  in  New  York  City  in  1867.  The  first 
colored  Student  Association  was  organized  at  Howard  Uni 
versity  in  1869.  E.  V.  C.  Cato,  of  the  New  York  City 
Branch,  attended  the  Montreal  Convention  in  1867  as  the 
first  Negro  delegate  thus  to  serve.  In  1876  George  D. 
Brown,  ex-Confederate  soldier,  was  appointed  to  supervise 
the  Negro  Branches  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso 
ciation  throughout  the  country.  In  1888,  however,  the 
lamented  William  A.  Hunton,  a  man  of  color,  who  had  been 
appointed  as  general  secretary  of  the  Negro  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Norfolk,  Virginia,  was  appointed 
to  succeed  Mr.  Brown,  and  thereafter  the  work  has  been 
under  the  supervision  of  Negro  secretaries. 

The  work  was  greatly  extended  with  some  difficulty,  and 
was  given  much  needed  impetus  by  the  accession  to  the 
ranks  of  enterprising  secretaries  laboring  in  many  cities 
and  in  most  Negro  schools  of  the  South.  Interesting  here 
The  growth.  and  there  persons  who  were  prejudiced  against 
the  movement  because  of  the  failure  to  understand  it,  these 
gentlemen  gradually  worked  their  way  into  the  very  hearts 
of  indifferent  communities  until  in  almost  all  of  the  large 
cities  where  Negroes  are  found  in  considerable  numbers, 
business  and  professional  men  of  both  races,  thanks  to  the 
noble  example  set  by  the  large  donations  of  Julius  Kosen- 
wald,  have  united  to  establish  for  Negroes  branches  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  where  they  enjoy  a 
comradeship  and  temporary  home-like  life  which  the 
transient  of  color  could  not  theretofore  find  in  those  cities. 
Recently  an  effort  has  been  made  to  provide  for  young 


Achievements  In  Freedom  287 

women  in  these  centers  the  same  facilities,  and  the  success 
of  the  useful  branches  of  the  Young  Women's  Christian 
Association  already  established  in  New  York,  Washington, 
Louisville  and  St.  Louis,  has  been  sufficient  encouragement 
to  the  authorities  in  charge  to  provide  elsewhere  similar 
facilities  for  women  of  color. 

As  a  result  of  the  work  of  these  agencies  the  home  life  of 
the  Negroes  has  been  decidedly  improved.  Every  Negro, 
of  course,  has  not  heeded  the  advice  of  his  friends,  and  the 
fact  that  some  have  lagged  behind  while  oth-  improvements 
ers  have  gone  forward  makes  it  no  longer  ^  homes- 
possible  to  speak  of  all  Negroes  as  belonging  to  two  classes, 
as  it  was  before  the  Civil  War  when  they  were  known  as 
slaves  and  free  persons  of  color.  Negro  homes  now  show 
the  same  difference  in  standards  as  found  among  the  whites. 
The  majority  of  Negroes  have  advanced  beyond  the  point  of 
being  satisfied  with  a  one-roomed  hut  conspicuous  by  its  lack 
of  ordinary  comforts.  They  are  buying  land  and  building 
houses  of  several  rooms.  An  effort  is  made  to  decorate 
the  walls  and  supply  the  home  with  adequate  furniture. 
Negro  children  attending  school  read  the  latest  books,  news 
papers,  and  magazines.  Where  the  evidence  of  such  progress 
is  not  manifest  it  is  possible  in  most  cases  to  show  that, 
because  of  economic  conditions,  the  Negroes  concerned  have 
been  too  much  handicapped  by  poverty  to  improve  their 
situation  as  they  would  like.  Recent  improvements  in  their 
economic  situation,  however,  have  made  these  conditions 
exceptions  to  the  rule. 

For  the  remaking  of  Negroes  most  credit  must  be  given 
to  the  schools  at  work  among  them.    The  teacher  has  made 
the  school,  the  school  has  figured  largely  in  the  making  of 
the  home,  and  the  home  has  produced  a  new     The  Efforts 
civilization.     While,    despite    the    efforts    of     of  schools, 
kindly  disposed  educators  like  Kuffner,  Curry,  and  Dillard, 
the  facilities  for  education  offered  Negroes  in  the  public 


288 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


schools  of  the  South  have  been  unusually  meager,  hardly 
extending  beyond  that  of  teaching  them  to  read  and  write, 
there  have  been  offered  in  schools  maintained  in  the  South 
by  northern  philanthropy  opportunities  for  so  much  en 
lightenment  that  teachers  going  out  from  these  institutions 
have  come  to  their  people  like  missionaries  inspired  to 
preach  a  new  gospel  to  the  lowly.  Lincoln  and  Wilberforce 

Universities  set  a  high 
standard  for  the  educa 
tion  of  the  Negroes  prior 
to  the  Civil  War,  and 
Howard  University,  under 
its  distinguished  founder, 
General  0.  O.  Howard, 
undertook  to  equip  for 
leadership  a  number  of 
youths  of  color  so  to  toil 
for  the  enlightenment  of 
their  people  as  to  mark  a 
new  epoch  in  their  prog 
ress.  A  large  number  of 
other  philanthropists  hav 
ing  the  same  ideals  as  the 
founders  of  these  institu 
tions,  established  others,  like  Fisk,  Atlanta,  Tougaloo, 
Talladega,  Morehouse,  Livingstone,  Knoxville,  and  Straight. 
Industrial  Then  came  Hampton,  Tuskegee  and  the  like, 
schools.  directing  attention  primarily  to  the  educa 

tion  of  the  masses  in  things  fundamental  so  as  to  enable 
the  youth  to  begin  with  life  where  he  is  and  to  make  of 
it  what  his  opportunities  will  permit. 

Meeting  thus  in  a  way  almost  every  need  for  Negro  edu 
cation,  offering  facilities  for  training  of  all  sorts,  the  Negro 
schools  have  been  very  successful  because  of  the  impetus 
given  them  by  such  philanthropists  as  William  H.  Baldwin, 


JULIUS    ROSENWALD 


Achievements  In  Freedom 


289 


Jr.,  Robert  C.  Ogden,  H.  H.  Rogers,  John  D.  Rockefeller, 
Andrew  Carnegie,  and  Julius  Rosenwald,  through  their  lib 
eral  contributions  to  the  establishment  and  the      Aid  f rom 
development  of  various  institutions.     While      philanthro- 
education  may  at  times  have  been  ill  assorted,     Pists- 
in  that  persons  have  without  giving  due  consideration  to 
their  capacity  and  opportunities  wasted  time  undertaking  to 
master  things  to  which  they  were  ill  adapted  and  which 
they  would  never  have  to 
do,   the  readjustment  has 
worked  out  in  such  a  way 
that     Negroes,     like     the 
whites,   now   have   oppor 
tunities    to    equip    them 
selves   for  whatever   they 
feel   disposed  to   do,   and 
in  life  they  have  exhibited 
the   same    mental    endow 
ment    found    among    the 
people  of  all  other  races. 
The  good  work  of  these 

institutions    has    been    ef-    ANDREW  CARNEGIE.     The  donor  of 
fective  in  putting  the  Ne-       $600,000   to    Tuskegee.     The   first 
gro  on  his  feet,  so  to  speak, 
enabling  the  Negro  to  do 


for  himself  what  the  thou- 


philanthropist    to    set    the    ex 
ample   of   giving   large    sums 
of    money    for    the    eleva 
tion  and  development  of 

the  Negro  race. 
6f    Sympathetic    and      Copyright  by  Marceau. 

benevolent  whites  of  the  missionary  spirit  had  to  do  for 
the  Negroes  in  leaving  their  homes  in  the  North.     Out  of 
these   schools   have   come   thousands   of   Ne-      Trained  to 
groes  of  scholarly  tendencies  who  have,  in  de-      leadership, 
voting  their  time  and  means  to  the  study  of  educational 
problems  and  school  administration,  equipped  themselves 
for  leadership  in  education  in  the  South.    It  has  for  some 
time  been  a  matter  of  much  regret  that  white  persons  in 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


JOHN  I).  ROCKEFELLER  AND  HIS  Sox.     Through  appropriations  of  the 
General  Education   Board   and  the  Laura   Spelman   Rockefeller  Me 
morial  large  sums  have  come  from  these  philanthropists  to  agencies 
engaged  in  the  uplift  and  the  education  of  the  Negro. 

Copyright  by  Underwood  &  Underwood. 


Achievements  In  Freedom 


291 


charge  of  schools  maintained  by  philanthropy  in  the  South 
have  failed  to  recognize  this  ability  of  the  Negro  and  still 
adhere  to  the  policy  of  restricting  them  to  subordinate  posi 
tions.  Negroes  have  borne  it  grievously  that  they  have  had 
to  contend  with  white  persons  who  feel  that  whenever  a 
Negro  is  given  a  position  of  responsibility  he  needs  careful 

watching  or  supervision  by  some 
white  man  that  it  may  be  done 
in  keeping  with  some  estab 
lished  policy. 

The    Negroes   have   not   only 
learned  lessons  in  religion,  edu 
cation   and  health,      progress  In 
but     have     shown      business, 
unusual  progress  in  the  business 
world.     They  have  accumulated 
so  much  property  in  the  rural 
districts  that  they  constitute   a 
desirable  class  of  small  farmers. 
R.  R.  MOTON,  the  Principal     In  the  cities  in   which  recently 

there  has  taken  place  the  concen 
tration  of  large  numbers  of  Negroes,  enterprising  men  of 
color  are  gradually  taking  over  business  formerly  monopo 
lized  by  whites.  Near  a  Negro  church  you  will  find  an 
undertaker  of  color.  In  almost  any  Negro  urban  com 
munity  there  is  a  successful  real  estate  dealer,  a  reliable 
contractor,  an  insurance  office,  and  sometimes  a  bank.  So 
popular  has  it  become  for  Negroes  to  deal  with  their  own 
people,  that  white  men  owning  business  in  Negro  sections 
have  learned  to  employ  considerable  Negro  help. 

The  Negro  in  business,  however,  is  not  a  new  thing.    The 
point  to  be  noted  here  is  the  unusual  progress  of  the  race  in 
this  field  during  recent  years.     It  is  more     Unusual 
than  encouraging,  moreover,  to  observe  how     achievements, 
easily  the  Negroes  have  learned  the  lesson  of  pooling  their 


292  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

efforts  in  larger  enterprises.  To  promote  the  economic 
progress  of  the  race,  Negroes  have  been  wise  enough  to  or 
ganize  several  efficient  agencies.  The  first  of  these  to  attain 
importance  was  the  National  Business  League  founded  by 
Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington.  There  are  also  the  National 
Negro  Bankers'  Association,  the  National  Association  of 
Funeral  Directors  and  the  National  Negro  Retail  Mer 
chants'  Association.  Negro  fraternal  organizations,  al 
though  established  for  social  purposes,  have  in  recent  years 
taken  on  a  business  aspect  in  providing  for  the  purchase 
of  property  and  the  insurance  of  the  lives  of  their  mem 
bers.  In  some  parts  of  the  South  the  Negroes  use  no  other 
insurance,  and  the  managers  of  this  work  constitute  in 
reality  an  industrial  insurance  company.  The  Negroes 
have  about  fifty  banks  and  ten  insurance  companies,  three 
of  which  are  regular  old  line  life  insurance  companies. 
In  1910,  3,208  Negroes  were  employed  in  banking  and 
brokerage,  2,604  in  insurance,  and  1,095  in  real  estate. 

Among  these  captains  of  industry  thus  pressing  forward 
should  be  mentioned  John  W.  Lewis,  President  of  the  In 
dustrial  Savings  Bank  and  the  Whitelaw  Apartment  House 
Captains  of  Corporation  of  Washington;  Samuel  W. 
industry.  Rutherford,  secretary  of  the  National  Benefit 

Association  of  the  same  city;  Isaiah  T.  Montgomery,  the 
capitalist  of  Mound  Bayou,  Mississippi;  John  Merrick, 
founder  of  the  North  Carolina  Mutual  and  Provi 
dent  Association ;  R.  L.  Smith,  the  organizer  of  the  Farm 
ers'  Improvement  Society  of  Texas;  Heman  E.  Perry, 
President  of  the  Standard  Life  Insurance  Company 
of  Atlanta;  and  the  late  Madame  C.  J.  Walker,  the  manu 
facturer  of  toilet  articles,  out  of  which  she  accumulated 
more  than  a  million  dollars  worth  of  property.  The  Ne 
groes  in  the  United  States  now  own  property  worth  more 
than  a  billion  dollars. 

In  the  midst  of  the  busy  bustle  and  the  economic  de- 


Achievements  In  Freedom  293 

velopment  of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War  the 
Negro  has  not  only  demonstrated  his  ability  to  accumulate 
a  portion  of  the  world's  goods,  but  has  by  his  inventive 
genius  contributed  much  toward  the  economic  inventive 
progress  of  the  country.  As  to  exactly  how  senlus- 
many  Negroes  have  appeared  in  the  field  of  invention  we 
are  still  in  doubt.  The  United  States  Patent  Office  has  not 
in  all  cases  kept  a  record  as  to  the  race  of  the  applicants. 
While  in  many  instances  the  racial  connection  has  been 
easily  determined,  an  investigation  has  shown  that  many 
inventors  of  color  have  not  disclosed  facts  to  this  effect  be 
cause  the  value  of  the  invention  might  thereby  be  depre 
ciated.  By  correspondence  with  patent  attorneys  and  the 
inventors  themselves  it  has  been  established  as  a  fact  that 
there  are  in  the  United  States  Patent  Office  a  record  of  1,500 
inventions  made  by  Negroes.  This  number,  no  doubt,  is 
only  a  fraction  of  those  which  have  been  actually  assigned 
to  persons  of  color. 

Some  of  these  inventions  have  been  remarkable.  Prob 
ably  the  most  significant  one  of  them  is  that  of  a  machine 
for  lasting  shoes  invented  by  Jan  E.  Matzeliger,  a  Negro 
born  in  Dutch  Guiana  in  1852.  Early  in  his  Matzeliger. 
youth  Matzeliger  came  to  this  country  and  served  as  an 
apprentice  at  the  cobbler's  trade  in  Philadelphia  and  in 
Lynn,  Massachusetts.  Undergoing  unusual  hardships  which 
undermined  his  health,  Matzeliger  applied  his  brain  to 
working  out  a  labor-saving  device  by  which  his  trade  might 
be  relieved  from  drudgery.  He  invented,  therefore,  a  last 
ing  machine  which  adjusted  the  shoe,  arranged  the  leather 
over  the  sole,  and  drove  in  the  nails.  Matzeliger  died  in 
1889,  in  his  thirty-seventh  year,  before  he  could  realize  the 
value  of  his  invention.  The  patent  was  bought  by  Sydney 
W.  Winslow,  who,  upon  the  advantages  derived  from  this 
machine,  established  the  well-known  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Company,  which  absorbed  over  40  smaller  corporations. 


294  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

This  company  is  operated  now  with  a  capital  stock  of  more 
than  $20,000,000,  employing  5,000  operators  in  factories 
covering  more  than  twenty  acres  of  ground.  Within  the 
twenty  years  from  the  time  of  its  incorporation  its  product 
increased  from  $220,000  to  $242,631,000  and  the  shoes  ex 
ported  increased  from  1,000,000  to  11,000,000.  As  a  result 
the  cost  of  shoes  decreased  fifty  per  cent,  the  wages  of  the 
operators  decidedly  increased,  the  working  hours  dimin 
ished,  and  laboring  conditions  improved. 

Some  other  inventions  of  Negroes  of  less  consequence 
were  of  much  value  and  deserve  mention.  J.  H.  Dickinson 
and  S.  L.  Dickinson,  both  of  New  Jersey,  have  been  granted 
Valuable  a  dozen  patents  for  mechanical  appliances  used 

inventions.  jn  player  piano  machinery.  W.  B.  Purvis  of 
Philadelphia  has  accumulated  much  wealth  by  his  inven 
tions  of  machinery  for  making  paper  bags,  most  of  these 
having  been  sold  to  the  Union  Paper  Bag  Company  of  New 
York.  A.  B.  Albert,  a  native  of  Louisiana,  invented  a  few 
years  ago  a  cotton  picking  machine.  Charles  V.  Richey 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  invented  and  patented  several  de 
vices  for  registering  calls  and  detecting  the  unauthorized 
use  of  the  telephone.  Shelby  J.  Davidson  invented  a  me 
chanical  tabulator  or  adding  machine ;  Robert  A.  Pelham,  a 
pasting  machine ;  and  Andrew  P.  Hilyer,  two  hot-air  regis 
ter  attachments.  Benjamin  F.  Jackson  of  Massachusetts  in 
vented  a  heat  apparatus,  a  gas  burner,  an  electrotypers ' 
furnace,  a  steam  boiler,  a  trolley  wheel  controller,  a  tank 
signal,  and  a  hydrocarbon  burner  system.  Frank  J.  Ferrell 
of  New  York  obtained  about  a  dozen  patents  for  improve 
ments  in  valves  for  steam  engines.  George  W.  Murray,  a 
former  member  of  Congress  from  South  Carolina,  patented 
eight  inventions  of  agricultural  implements.  Henry 
Kreamer  of  New  York  made  seven  different  inventions  in 
steam  traps.  William  Douglass  of  Arkansas  secured  six 
patents  for  inventions  of  harvesting  machinery.  James 


NO.  274,207. 


Achievements  In  Freedom 
J.  E.  MATZELIGER 

LASTING  MACHINE 

PATENTED  MAR.  20, 1553 


AN   ILLUSTRATION   SHOWING   THE  MODELS   MADE   BY   MATZELIGER  TO   ILLUSTRATB 
HIS  INVENTIONS  IN  SHOE  MACHINES, 


296  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Doyle  of  Pittsburgh  devised  the  automatic  serving  system 
so  as  to  dispense  with  the  use  of  waiters  in  cafes. 

Fred  J.  Lowden,  known  to  fame  as  one  of  the  Fisk 
Jubilee  Singers,  patented  in  1893  a  fastener  for  the  meeting 
Useful  rails  of  sashes,  and  a  key  fastener  the  fol- 

appliances.  lowing  year.  J.  L.  Pickering  of  Haiti, 
James  Smith  of  California,  W.  G.  Madison  of  Iowa,  and 
H.  E.  Hooter  of  Missouri,  have  been  granted  patents  for 
inventions  in  airships.  No  less  significant,  moreover,  was 
the  patent,  in  1897,  of  Andrew  J.  Beard,  of  Alabama, 
for  an  automatic  car-coupling  device,  sold  to  a  New 
York  car  company  for  m,ore  than  $50,000.  William  H. 
Johnson  of  Texas  invented  a  successful  device  for  overcom 
ing  dead  center  in  motion,  one  for  a  compound  engine  and 
another  for  a  water  boiler.  While  keeping  a  hotel  in  Bos 
ton,  Joseph  Lee  patented  three  inventions  for  kneading 
dough.  Brinay  Smart  of  Tennessee  invented  a  number  of 
reverse  valve  gears.  J.  W.  Benton  of  Kentucky  invented  a 
derrick  for  hoisting  heavy  weights.  John  T.  Parker  in 
vented  screws  for  tobacco  presses  with  which  he  established 
a  thriving  business  as  the  Ripley  Foundry  and  Machine 
Company  of  Ripley,  Ohio. 

The  most  useful  inventor  with  a  career  extending  into  the 
twentieth  century,  however,  was  Granville  T.  Woods,  who 
doubtless  surpassed  most  men  in  his  field  in  the  number  and 
Granville  T.  the  variety  of  his  devices.  .He  began  in  Cin- 
Woods.  cinnati,  Ohio,  in  1884,  where  he  obtained  his 

first  patent  on  a  steam  boiler  furnace.  Then  came  an 
amusement  machine  apparatus  in  1880,  an  incubator  in 
1900,  and  electrical  air  brakes  in  1902,  1903,  and  1905.  He 
then  directed  his  attention  to  telegraphy,  producing  several 
patents  for  transmitting  messages  between  moving  trains, 
and  also  a  number  of  transmitters.  He  thereafter  invented 
fifteen  appliances  having  to  do  with  electrical  railways  and 
a  number  of  others  for  electrical  control  and  distribution. 


Achievements  In  Freedom 


297 


To  further  his  interests  he  organized  the  Woods  Electrical 
Company,  which  took  over  by  assignment  all  of  his  early 
patents.  As  in  the  course  of  time,  however,  he  found  a 
larger  market  for  his  devices  with  the  more  prosperous 
corporations  in  the  United  States,  the  records  of  the  patent 
office  show  the  assignment  of  a  large  number  of  his  inven 
tions  to  the  General  Electric  Company  of  New  York,  the 
Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Com 
pany  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Amer 
ican  Bell  Telephone  Company  of 
Boston,  and  the  American  En 
gineering  Company  of  New  York. 
During  this  period  of  his  larger 
usefulness  he  had  the  cooperation 
of  his  brother,  Lyates  Woods,  who 
himself  invented  a  number  of 
such  appliances  of  considerable 
commercial  value. 

Another  inventor  of  conse 
quence  was  Elijah  J.  McCoy.  He  was  unique  in  that 
he  was  the  first  man  to  direct  attention  to  the  need  for 
facilitating1  the  lubrication  of  machinery.  Elijah  J. 
His  first  invention  was  patented  in  1872  as  McCoy. 
a  lubricating  cup.  From  that  day  his  fame  as  an  inven 
tor  of  this  useful  appliance  went  throughout  this  country 
and  abroad.  In  responding  to  the  need  for  still  further 
improvements  in  this  work,  he  patented  about  fifty  dif 
ferent  inventions  having  to  do  with  the  lubricating  of 
machinery.  His  lubricating  cup  became  of  general  use  on 
the  leading  railroads  in  the  United  States  and  abroad  and 
on  the  vessels  on  the  high  seas.  In  his  work,  however,  Mr. 
McCoy  was  not  restricted  to  lubricating  machinery.  He 
patented  a  variety  of  devices  for  other  purposes,  and  he  was 
long  active  in  the  production  of  other  mechanical  appliances 
in  demand  in  the  industrial  world. 


GRANVILLE  T.  WOODS 


298  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

The  achievements  of  the  Negroes  in  this  field  become 
much  worthier  of  mention  when  one  takes  into  consideration 
the  hard  problems  of  the  inventor  of  color.  In  this  country 
Difficulties  it:  nas  not  Deen  a  very  easy  matter  for  white 

of  the  men  with  ample  protection  of  the  law  to  se- 

inventor. 

cure  to  themselves  by  patents  the  full  enjoy 
ment  of  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor.  The  achievements  of 
Eli  Whitney  and  Robert  Fulton  are  cases  in  evidence. 
Henry  A.  Bowman,  a  Negro  inventor  of  Worcester,  Mas 
sachusetts,  therefore,  found  himself  facing  the  same  diffi 
culty.  After  he  had  established  a  thriving  business  on  the 
basis  of  his  invention  of  a  new  method  of  making  flags,  he 
discovered  that  a  New  York  firm  was  outstripping  him  by 
using  his  invention.  As  he  was  unable  to  hire  competent 
attorneys  to  protect  his  interests,  he  was  soon  compelled  to 
abandon  his  business.  The  experience  of  E.  A.  Robinson  of 
Chicago  is  another  case  in  evidence.  He  invented  a  num 
ber  of  devices,  such  as  the  casting  composite  for  car  wheels, 
a  trolley  wheel,  a  railway  switch  and  a  rail.  His  patents, 
however,  were  infringed  upon  by  two  large  corporations, 
the  American  Car  and  Foundry  Company  and  the  Chicago 
City  Railway  Company.  To  restrain  these  corporations 
from  appropriating  his  property  to  their  use,  he  instituted 
proceedings  in  the  local  courts  and  finally  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  but  hitherto  he  has  been  unable 
to  have  his  patent  protected. 

Exhibiting  this  same  sort  of  genius  ever  manifesting  itself 
despite  difficulties,  Negroes  have  shown  in  other  fields 
evidences  of  unusual  attainment.  In  music  the  world  has 
The  Negro  seen  the  lowly  life  and  higher  aspirations  of 
in  music.  the  Negro  in  j  w  and  F  w  Work,  Will 

Marion  Cook,  Nathaniel  Dett,  and  Harry  Burleigh,  fol 
lowing  in  the  footsteps  of  Samuel  Coleridge  Taylor.  In 
sculpture  the  race  has  been  well  represented  by  Meta  Vaux 
Warrick  Fuller,  who  won  fame  by  her  first  work  in  clay 


Achievements  In  Freedom  299 

in  the  Philadelphia  School  of  Industrial  Art.  She  studied 
in  Paris,  where  she  attracted  the  attention  of  the  great 
sculptor,  Rodin.  In  1893  she  exhibited  the  highly  prized 
model  of  art,  The  Wretched,  her  masterpiece.  She  has  since 
added  some  other  works,  The  Dancing  Girl,  The  Wrestlers, 
and  Carrying  the  Dead  Body.  In  the  same  field  has  also 
appeared  Mrs.  May  Howard  Jackson,  whose  works  have 
elicited  honorable  mention  in  many  circles.  E.  M.  Bannis 
ter,  William  A.  Harper,  and  William  E.  Scott  have  at 
tracted  considerable  attention  by  their  paintings. 

The  most  distinguished  Negro  in  the  field  of  art,  how 
ever,  is  Henry  0.  Tanner,  who,  with  the  white  artist,  Sar 
gent,  represents  the  best  America  has  produced  in  painting. 
He  had  little  encouragement  in  this  field,  but  Henry  O. 
early  attracted  attention  by  The  Bagpipe  Tanner. 
Lesson,  portraying  a  workman  sitting  on  a  wheelbarrow  ob 
serving  the  efforts  of  a  youth  on  a  musical  instrument. 
Lacking  in  this  country  the  atmosphere  conducive  to  the 
development  of  the  best  in  man,  Mr.  Tanner  went  to  the 
city  of  Paris  in  1891  where,  under  the  instruction  of  Jean 
Paul  Laurens  and  Benjamin  Constant,  he  mastered  the 
principles  of  art.  There,  in  contact  with  men  in  his  own 
sphere,  he  has  developed  into  one  of  the  greatest  artists  of 
his  time. 

His  first  painting  of  value  was  exhibited  in  1894.  The 
following  year  he  completed  The  Young  Sabot  Maker,  but 
it  was  not  until  1896  that  with  the  encouragement  given 
him  by  the  great  artist  Gerome  Mr.  Tanner  won  recog 
nition  as  a  painter.  In  1897,  however,  his  Raising  of 
Lazarus  attracted  so  much  attention  far  and  wide  that 
thereafter  there  was  little  doubt  in  the  circles  of  art  as  to 
the  greatness  of  this  man.  This  picture  was  awarded  the 
gold  medal  by  the  French  government  and  placed  in  the 
Louvre.  In  1898  he  presented  to  the  public  The  Annun 
ciation  at  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  in  Philadelphia,  elicit- 


300  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ing  unusually  favorable  comment.  His  Judas,  presented  to 
the  public  in  1899,  was  bought  by  the  Carnegie  Institute  of 
Pittsburgh.  That  same  year  Nicodemus,  awarded  the  Wal 
ter  Lippincott  prize  of  $300,  was  purchased  by  the  Pennsyl 
vania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  For  his  Daniel  in  the  Lion's 
Den  he  was  awarded  second  class  medals  at  the  Universal 
Exposition  in  Paris  in  1900,  at  the  Pan-American  Expo 
sition  in  1901,  and  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition  in  1904. 
In  1906  his  The  Disciples  at  Emmaus  was  awarded  the 


H.   0.  TANNER'S  Christ  and  Nicodemus 

second  gold  medal  and  purchased  by  the  French  Govern 
ment.  That  same  year  his  The  Disciples  at  the  Tomb  was 
declared  the  best  painting  at  the  annual  exhibition  of  art 
in  Chicago  and  was  awarded  the  N.  W.  Harris  prize  of 
$300.  In  1908  appeared  The  Wise  and  Foolish  Virgins, 
which  was  characterized  as  a  masterpiece  of  a  sincere  artist. 
As  a  painter,  Mr.  Tanner  has  directed  his  attention 
largely  to  religious  and  lowly  life,  as  evidenced  by  the  names 
of  his  paintings.  He  no  doubt  owes  this  attitude  to  the 
fact  that  he  is  the  son  of  a  bishop  of  the  African  Methodist 


Achievements  In  Freedom  301 

Episcopal  Church,  and  early  in  life  was  encouraged  to 
apply  himself  to  theology.  As  an  artist  his  productions 
have  a  reverent  atmosphere,  and  his  pictures  are  clean-cut 
and  luminous.  In  his  paintings  there  are  subtle  power, 
purity  of  line,  and  thorough  charm,  with  sentiment  pre 
vailing  over  technique.  While  the  shades  are  luminous,  the 
coloring  is  neither  heavy  nor  muddy.  "He  always  brings 
out  of  all  his  work,"  says  one,  "an  admirable  dramatic 
sentiment  given  full  value  and  fully  expressed." 

In  the  field  of  literature  the  Negroes  are  sometimes  con 
sidered  as  beginners,  but  much  progress  in  this  field  is  evi 
dent.     Kelly  Miller,  W.  E.  B.  DuBois  arid  William  Pickens 
have  done  well  in  controversial  literature.      In  literature. 
George  W.  Williams,  John  W.  Cromwell  and  Booker  T. 
Washington  have  made  contributions  to  history.    Following 
in  the  wake  of  Jupiter  Hammon,  Phyllis  Wheatley  and 
Frances  E.  W.  Harper,  writers  of  interesting  verse,  Paul 
Laurence  Dunbar  came  before  the  public  in  the  early  nine 
ties  as  a  man  endowed  with  the  unusual  gift  of  interpreting 
the  lowly  life  of  the  Negro.    As  an  elevator  boy  in  a  hotel, 
writing  a  few  lines  in  dialect,  he  himself  did  not  realize 
his  poetic  genius.    Succeeding,  however,  in  having  a  few  of 
these  published  in  daily  papers  and  magazines,  he  attracted 
attention.     It  was  not  long  before  William  Dean  Howells,  a 
contemporary,   became   interested  in  his  works   and  pro 
claimed  him  to  the  world  as  a  poet  worthy  of  the  consider 
ation  given  Whittier,  Lowell  and  Longfellow.     The  rise 
Dunbar  had  fortunately  reached  that  unusual     of  Dwrt'3*- 
stage  in  the  development  of  a  belated  people  of  having  his 
education  react  upon  his  environment.     He  saw  the  Ne 
gro  as  he  is,  saw  something  beneath  the  surface  of  his  mere 
brogue,   in   fact,   saw  a   philosophy   for  which   the  world 
wanted  an  interpretation.     This  interpretation  came  in  his 
first  book,  Oak  and  Ivy,  and  was  still  better  exhibited  in 
his  second  work,  Majors  and  Minors,  appearing  in  1895. 


302 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


9 

" 


Very  soon  then  we  hear  of  him  such  comments  as  that  com 
ing  from  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  saying  that  Dunbar  is  the 
first  black  man  to  feel  the  life  of  the  Negro  esthetically  and 
to  express  it  lyrically. 

Dunbar  made  an  attempt  at  novel  writing,  as  appears  in 
his  The  Uncalled.     This  was  a  character  study  upon  which 

fortunately  his  reputation 
as  a  literary  man  does  not 
rest,  for  it  does  not  come 
up  to  the  standard  of  his 
verse.  Unstinted  praise 
awaited  him  upon  his 
publication  of  Lyrics  of 
Lowly  Life,  Folks  from 
Dixie,  Lyrics  of  the  Hearth- 
side,  Poems  of  Cabin  and 
Field,  The  Strength  of 
Gideon,  The  Love  of  Lan- 
dry,  The  Fanatics,  The 
Sport  of  the  Gods,  Lyrics 
of  Love  and  Laughter 
and  Candle  Lighting  Time. 
Some  of  the  popular  poems 
in  this  collection  which  are 
worthy  of  special  mention 
are  When  Malindy  Sings, 
When  the  Co'n  Pone's  Hot,  The  Party  and  The  Poet  and 
his  Song. 

His  success  as  a  literary  man  was  due  to  his  originality. 
While  there  had  appeared  from  time  to  time  scores  of 
whites  and  blacks  who  had  undertaken  to  write  verse  in 
Negro  dialect,  Dunbar  was  the  first  to  put  into  it  such 
thought  and  make  of  it  such  a  portraiture  of  the  feeling 
and  the  aspirations  of  the  Negroes  as  to  give  his  work  the 
stamp  of  originality.  While  he  was  always  humorous,  his 


PAUL  LAURENCE  DUNBAR 


Achievements  In  Freedom  303 

poetry  showed  deep  pathos  and  sympathy.  With  no-  prob 
lems  to  solve  and  no  peculiar  type  of  character  to  represent 
he  went  into  the  Negro  life,  saw  it  as  it  was,  and  emerged 
portraying  it  with  living  characters  exhibiting  the  elas 
ticity,  spirit,  tone,  and  naturalness  in  the  life  about  him. 

In  life  he  was  respected  and  known  throughout  this  coun 
try  and  abroad.  In  1897  he  visited  England,  where  be 
cause  of  his  fame  as  a  poet  he  was  received  with  marked 
honor.  Upon  returning  to  this  country  his  literary  en 
gagements  became  such  that  he  could  devote  himself  en 
tirely  to  work  in  his  field.  His  health  early  began  to  de 
cline,  however,  and  he  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-four  at  his 
home  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  which,  thanks  to  the  interest  of 
sympathetic  persons  of  both  races,  is  now  maintained  as  a 
monument  to  remain  as  a  museum  in  honor  of  the  poet, 
Paul  Laurence  Dunbar. 

Since  the  days  of  Dunbar  a  number  of  other  Negro 
writers  of  prominence  have  considerably  interested  the  pub 
lic.  Among  these  should  be  mentioned  Angelina  W. 
Grimke,  a  woman  of  poetic  insight ;  Benjamin  Other  writers. 
Brawley,  an  author  of  many  interests ;  Jessie  R.  Fauset,  a 
writer  of  varying  purpose;  Georgia  Douglas  Johnson, 
whose  interesting  poems  have  recently  appeared  as  The 
Heart  of  a  Woman;  Leslie  Pinkney  Hill,  distinguished  by 
his  Wings  of  Oppression;  Joseph  Seaman  Cotter,  known  to 
the  public  through  his  poems  contributed  to  various  maga 
zines  and  his  collection  entitled  the  Band  of  Gideon;  and 
James  Weldon  Johnson,  whose  invaluable  works  are  col 
lected  in  the  volume,  Fifty  Years  and  Other  Poems.  These 
authors  are  at  their  best  in  writing  poems  which  have  no 
bearing  on  the.  life  of  the  Negro.  In  this  field  they  have  ex 
hibited  evidences  of  the  thought,  feeling  and  imagination 
found  in  the  best  literature.  In  taking  up  Negro  life,  how 
ever,  they  have  not  reached  the  standard  of  Dunbar.  Their 
difficulty  has  been  that  because  of  sufferings  from  social 


304  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

proscription  in  the  white  men's  world  they  have  faced  their 
task  with  a  problem  to  solve  and,  unlike  Paul  Laurence 
Dunbar,  who  went  into  life  and  merely  portrayed  what  he 
saw,  they  prejudice  their  readers  against  them  by  a  pre 
mature  introduction  to  an  unpleasant  atmosphere. 

The  most  remarkable  writer  of  Negro  blood  since  Dunbar 
is  William  Stanley  Braithwaite,  who  as  a  writer  is  not  a 
Negro.  Although  realizing  the  fact  that  the  race  has  ob- 
Braithwaite.  stacles  to  surmount,  that  it  is  in  a  great  strug 
gle,  and  that  the  battle  is  being  hard  fought,  Mr.  Braith 
waite  has  by  his  literary  production  and  criticism  won  much 
consideration  for  the  Negroes,  not  by  singing  of  their  woes, 
but  by  demonstrating  that  the  Negro  intellect  is  capable  of 
the  same  achievements  as  that  of  the  whites.  In  his  poems, 
his  annual  publication,  the  Anthology  of  Magazine  Verse, 
and  his  numerous  literary  criticisms  appearing  from 
time  to  time  in  the  leading  publications  of  this  country,  Mr. 
Braithwaite,  although  a  man  of  African  blood,  is  accepted 
as  one  of  the  foremost  literary  critics  of  our  day. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  NEGRO  IN  THE  WORLD  WAR 

WHILE  the  Negroes  were  suffering  from  persecution  in 
the  South  and  economic  proscription  in  the  North,  the 
world  plunged  almost  unexpectedly  into  a  universal  strug 
gle  which  materially  affected  the  interests  of  A  factor 
the  blacks.1  The  heir-presumptive  to  the  in  the  war. 
Austro-Hungarian  throne  was  shot  at  Serajevo  June  28, 
1914.  Blaming  the  Serbs  for  this  crime,  the  Austrian  gov 
ernment  sent  Serbia  an  ultimatum  demanding  that  the 
offenders  be  brought  to  trial  by  a  tribunal  in  which  Austria 
should  be  represented.  Serbia  refused  to  yield  to  these 
demands  and  was  supported  by  Russia  in  this  position ;  but 
Germany  upheld  Austria,  feeling  that  if  such  an  act  passed 
without  punishment,  it  would  soon  be  impossible  for  the 
crowned  heads  of  Europe  to  maintain  their  empires.  Eng 
land,  France,  and  Italy  recommended  that  the  matter  be 
adjusted  by  arbitration,  but  Germany,  contending  that 
mobilization  of  the  Russian  army  was  in  reality  a  decla 
ration  of  war  against  her,  declared  war  on  Russia  the  first 
of  August  and  on  France  two  days  later.  England  sym 
pathized  with  France,  to  which  she  was  attached  by  various 
ties,  and  accordingly  entered  the  war  against  Germany. 

iThe  history  of  the  World  War  has  not  yet  been  written.  There 
have  appeared  several  subscription  volumes  for  the  purpose  of  making 
money  rather  than  to  publish  the  whole  truth,  and  they  have  been 
extensively  sold.  As  to  the  role  of  the  Negro  in  this  drama  there  is 
but  scant  reliable  information.  Emmett  J.  Scott  has  written  a 
popular  account  of  the  achievements  of  the  Negroes  in  this  struggle, 
but  it  is  hoped  that  this  may  soon  be  foHowed  by  a  scientific  treatise. 

305 


806  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

"When  Germany  showed  such  disregard  of  her  treaty  obli 
gations  as  to  invade  Belgium,  a  neutral  country,  she  lost 
the  sympathy  of  most  European  and  American  countries, 
many  of  which  finally  joined  the  allies  to  curb  the  power  of 
the  Hohenzollerns. 

As  the  United  States,  although  deeply  sympathizing 
with  the  struggle  against  autocracy,  did  not  deem  the  inter 
ference  with  our  commerce  and  even  the  sinking  of  our 
Prosperity.  neutral  ships  sufficient  cause  for  intervention, 
this  country  entered  at  once  upon  an  unprecedented  period 
of  commercial  prosperity  in  becoming  the  source  of  supply 
for  almost  everything  needed  by  the  numerous  nations  in 
volved  in  the  war.  Industries,  formerly  in  a  struggling 
state,  received  an  unusual  impetus ;  new  enterprises  sprang 
up  in  a  day ;  and  persons  formerly  living  merely  above  want 
multiplied  their  wealth  by  fortunate  investments.  The  ag 
gressions  of  Germany  upon  our  commerce  resulting  in  the 
death  of  our  citizens  upon  ships  destroyed  on  the  high  seas 
became  so  numerous,  however,  that  thousands  of  Americans, 
led  by  Theodore  Roosevelt,  insisted  upon  a  declaration  of 
war  against  Germany.  But  our  trade  with  the  Allies  was  so 
lucrative  that  it  was  difficult  to  convert  a  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  country  to  the  belief  that  it  would  be  better 
for  us  to  disturb  the  era  of  commercial  prosperity  to  go 
to  war  for  the  mere  principle  that  Germany  wronged  us  in 
trying  to  break  up  our  lawful  commerce  with  the  belliger 
ents  in  Europe. 

This  continued  prosperity  brought  on  a  new  day  for  the 
laboring  man  and  consequently  a  period  of  economic  ad 
vancement  for  the  Negro.  The  million  of  immigrants  an- 
A  new  day  nually  reaching  our  shores  were  cut  off  from 
for  labor.  this  country  by  the  war.  Labor  in  the  United 

States  then  soon  proved  to  be  inadequate  to  supply  the 
demand.  Wages  in  the  industrial  centers  of  the  North  and 
West  were  increased  to  attract  white  men,  but  a  sufficient 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          307 

number  of  them  could  not  be  found  in  this  country,  so 
great  was  the  demand  in  the  industrial  centers,  the  plants, 
and  cantonments,  making  preparations  for  war.  Departing 
then  from  the  time-honored  custom  in  the  North,  the  needy 
employers  began  to  bid  for  Negro  labor  of  the  South.  All 
Negroes  who  came  seeking'  unskilled  labor  Negro  labor 
were  hired,  and  occasionally  skilled  workmen  in  demand, 
of  color  found  employment.  But  the  Negroes  of  the  South 
were  not  merely  invited;  they  were  sent  for.  Those  who 
first  ventured  North  to  find  employment  wrote  back  for 
their  friends,  and  when  this  method  failed  to  supply  the 
demand,  labor  agents  were  sent  for  that  purpose  wherever 
they  could  find  men ;  but  the  Mississippi  Valley,  for  several 
reasons,  proved  to  be  the  most  favorable  section.  Through 
this  valley  conditions  had  at  times  become  unsettled  on 
account  of  the  periodical  inundations  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  Negroes  in  those  lowlands,  usually  the  greatest  sufferers, 
welcomed  the  opportunity  to  go  to  a  safer  and  more  con 
genial  part.  Throughout  the  Gulf  States,  however,  where 
the  boll  weevil  had  for  years  made  depredations  on  the  cot 
ton  crop,  Negroes  were  also  inclined  to  move  out  to  a  section 
in  which  their  economic  progress  might  be  assured.  In 
short,  the  call  from  the  North  came  at  the  time  the  Negroes 
were  ready  and  willing  to  go. 

It  may  seem  a  little  strange  that  Negroes  who  had  for 
years  complained  of  intolerable  persecution  in  the  South 
never  made  any  strenuous  efforts  to  leave  until  offered 
economic  advantages  in  the  North.     Such  a       Economic 
course  was  inevitable,  however,  for,  intoler-       advantages 
able  as  conditions  were  in  the  South,  the  ort  ' 

Negro  had  to  live  somewhere  and  he  could  not  do  so  in 
the  North  because  of  the  monopoly  of  labor  maintained 
there  by  the  hostile  trades  unions.  In  this  more  recent  move 
ment,  instead  of  making  his  way  to  the  North  where  among 
unfriendly  people  he  would  have  to  eke  out  an  existence  as 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 

PERCENTAGE  NEGRO  IN  THE  POPULATION 


t    1  Less  than  1  per  cent, 
i  to  5  per  cent. 
6  to  10  per  cent. 
10  to  15  per  cent, 
15  to  25  per  cent. 
25  to  35  per  cent. 
35  to  50  per  cent. 
60  per  cent  and  over. 


(1C) 
By  permission  of  the  Tnited  States  Bureau  of  the  Census 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  BY  COUNTIES'  1910, 


310  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

a  menial,  he  was  invited  to  come  to  these  industrial  centers 
where  friends  and  employment  awaited  him.  History, 
moreover,  does  not  show  that  large  numbers  of  persons  have 
migrated  because  of  persecution.  If  not  assured  of  an 
equally  good  economic  foundation  elsewhere,  the  majority 
of  those  persecuted  have  decided  in  the  final  analysis  to  bear 
the  ills  they  have  rather  than  fly  to  those  they  know  not  of. 

The  oppression  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South,  however,  was 
also  a  cause  of  the  exodus,  though  not  the  dominant  one. 
When  men  from  afar  came  to  tell  the  Negroes  of  a  way  of 
Oppression,  escape  to  a  peaceful  and  law-abiding  land, 
a  cause.  ^ey  were  received  as  spies  returning  from  the 

inspection  of  a  promised  land.  While  the  many  were  moved 
by  the  chance  to  amass  fabulous  sums,  they  all  sighed  with 
relief  at  the  thought  that  they  could  at  last  go  to  a  country 
where  they  could  educate  their  children,  protect  their  fami 
lies  from  insult,  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labor.  They 
had  pleasant  recollections  of  the  days  when  Negroes  wielded 
political  power,  and  the  dream  of  again  coming  into  their 
own  was  a  strong  motive  impelling  many  to  leave  the  South. 
Negro  leaders  primarily  interested  in  securing  to  the  race 
the  full  enjoyment  of  its  rights  rejoiced  that  they  were 
going  North,  while  the  conservative,  sycophantic  toady 
classes  advised  them  to  remain  in  the  service  of  their  em 
ployers  in  the  South. 

In  the  North,  however,  although  the  Negroes  readily 
entered  upon  the  enjoyment  of  many  privileges  denied  them 
in  the  South,  they  have  here  and  there  been  brought  into 
Troubles  in  competition  with  the  radical  white  laboring 
the  North.  element  which  at  Chester,  Youngstown,  and 
East  St.  Louis  precipitated  riots  in  trying  to  get  rid  of 
Negro  labor.  At  East  St.  Louis  in  July,  1917,  Negroes 
long  harassed  by  this  element  finally  became  the  object 
of  onslaughts  by  the  whites.  They  were  overcome  by  the 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          311 

mob,  which  was  supported  by  the  silence  of  the  militia  sent 
to  maintain  order  and  even  outwardly  by  certain  of  its 
members,  who  permitted  individuals  to  take  their  guns  to 
drive  the  Negroes  into  their  congested  quarters,  where  they 
massacred  and  burned  125.  The  administration  of  justice 
in  this  northern  State  seemed  no  better  than  that  in  the 
South;  for  although  the  whites  were  the  aggressors  in  the 


A  RESULT  OF  THE  MIGRATION.    A  Negro  teacher  with  pupils 
of  both  races. 

riot,  the  court  inflicted  more  punishment  on  the  Negroes 
than  on  the  whites.  One  Negro  was  sentenced  to  life  im 
prisonment  but  later  acquitted.  Ten  other  Negroes  were 
to  serve  fourteen  years,  whereas  four  white  men  were  im 
prisoned  for  from  fourteen  to  fifteen  years,  five  for  five 
years,  eleven  for  less  than  one  year;  eighteen  were  fined, 
and  seventeen  acquitted. 
These  outbreaks,  of  course,  justified  the  predictions  of 


312  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

southern  employers  that  the  Negroes  would  not  be  welcomed 
in  the  North  and  strengthened  certain  seriously  thinking 
Negroes  in  believing  that  the  prosperity  of  the  Negro  in 
Differing  the  industrial  centers  was  merely  temporary 

reflections.  and  that  the  trades  unions,  especially  when 
strengthened  by  the  immigrants  from  Europe  after  the  war, 
would  eventually  force  the  Negroes  out  of  employment  after 
having  severed  the  ties  which  bound  them  to  the  South. 
Other  Negroes  had  little  fear  from  the  immigrants.  Be 
lieving  that  the  depopulation  of  Europe  during  this  war 
will  render  a  large  immigration  from  that  quarter  an  im 
possibility,  others  urged  the  Negroes  to  continue  their  com 
ing  North  in  spite  of  all  conflicts  and  difficulties,  seeing 
that  they  are  now  migrating  in  such  numbers  as  to  be 
materially  helpful  and  to  wield  economic  and  political 
power. 

Knowing  that  the  South  was  losing  the  only  sort  of  labor 
it  can  use  in  its  exploiting  system,  employers  of  that  section 
considered  the  exodus  a  calamity.  They,  therefore,  took 
The  Exodus  steps  to  impede  and  if  possible  to  stop  the 
a  calamity.  movement.  Moral  suasion  was  first  used.  Ne 
groes  were  told  of  the  horrors  of  the  North  and  especially 
of  the  hard  winters.  When  letters  to  Negroes  from  friends 
who  were  easily  braving  these  hardships  reached  the  South, 
another  sort  of  argument  was  necessary.  Labor  agents  were 
first  handicapped  by  requiring  of  them  a  high  license ;  they 
were  then  by  special  ordinances  prohibited  from  inducing 
Negroes  to  leave,  and  finally  driven  out  of  the  South.  As 
the  mail  proved  to  be  almost  as  good  an  avenue  for  reaching 
the  prospective  migrant,  those  seeking  to  prevent  the  exodus 
found  their  efforts  still  futile.  Negroes  going  North  were 
then  driven  from  the  railway  stations,  taken  from  trains, 
and  imprisoned  on  false  charges  to  delay  or  prevent  their 
departure  from  southern  cities,  but  the  Negroes  continued  to 
go  North.  The  movement  was  not  checked  until  after  the 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          313 

intervention  of  the  United  States  in  the  war,  when  the  ad 
ministration  spent  so  much  money  in  the  South  while 
hurrying  the  preparation  for  war  that  wages  so  rapidly  in 
creased  and  work  became  so  general  that  it  was  unneces 
sary  for  the  Negroes  to  go  North  to  improve  their  economic 
condition. 

The  final  intervention  of  the  United  States  in  the  World 
War  marked  another  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  Negro  in 
this  country.  In  the  first  place  few  people  in  America 
were  anxious  to  go  to  the  front,  although  a  The  interven- 
majority  of  our  citizens  felt  that  the  Hohen-  tion  of  the 
zollern  autocracy  should  be  destroyed.  Men 
had  to  be  converted  to  the  war.  German  spies  had  long 
been  abroad  in  this  country,  and  millions,  because  of  their 
German  descent,  felt  bitter  toward  the  United  States  for 
going  to  the  aid  of  the  Allies.  There  was  then  much  appre 
hension  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  Negroes,  as  they  through 
out  this  country  had  been  treated  as  pariahs  unprepared 
for  the  full  measure  of  that  democracy  for  which  Woodrow 
Wilson  desired  to  fight  in  Europe  that  the  world  might  be  a 
decent  place  to  live  in.  As  a  matter  of  fact  German  spies 
did  approach  Negroes,  and  a  few  of  them  ex-  German  spies, 
pressed  themselves  as  being  in  sympathy  with  Germany. 
A  still  larger  number  boldly  advocated  making  this  coun 
try  a  decent  place  for  the  Negroes  before  taking  Negroes 
to  Europe  to  secure  to  the  oppressed  there  privileges  which 
the  blacks  could  not  enjoy  at  home. 

In  thinking  that  the  Negro  would  prove  disloyal  to  the 
United  States,  however,  the  white  man  showed  that  he  did 
not  understand  the  race.  The  Negroes  of  this  country 
love  their  native  soil  and  will  readily  die,  if  The  Negroes 
necessary,  to  defend  it.  However,  they  do  loyal- 
not  love  the  reactionaries,  who  during  the  last  fifty  years 
of  their  control  of  the  Federal  Government  have  failed  to 
live  up  to  their  oath  to  carry  out  the  Constitution  of  the 


314  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

United  States,  which  guarantees  to  the  Negroes  the  enjoy 
ment  of  every  right,  immunity,  and  privilege,  found  in 
the  most  liberal  democracy  on  earth.  The  Negroes  will  con 
tinue  to  be  loyal  to  their  country,  with  the  hope  that 
the  degraded  elements  in  control  may  become  sufficiently 
civilized  to  abandon  medieval  methods  for  government 
based  on  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity.  As  the  prin 
ciple  is  worth  fighting  for,  and  as  the  struggle  for  it  must 
not  be  hopeless  in  view  of  the  interest  occasionally  shown  in 
the  man  far  down,  the  Negroes  would  not  permit  their 
dispositions  to  sour;  they  forgot  their  wrongs  and  offered 
themselves  to  fight  the  battles  of  humanity. 

The  reactionary  class,  however,  although  ready  to  brand 
the  Negroes  with  suspicion  and  to  prosecute  them  for  dis- 
Eeactionarles  loyalty>  urged  the  government  not  to  recruit 
against  Negroes.  The  Negroes,  according  to  the 

whites  of  this  attitude,  constituted  an  inferior 
class  which  should  not  participate  in  the  struggle  of  white 
men.  Many  Southerners,  moreover,  who,  in  their  faulty 
judgment,  have  solved  forever  the  race  problem  by  depriv 
ing  Negroes  of  social,  political  and  civic  rights,  considered 
it  alarming  to  train  them  in  the  arts  of  war ;  for  men  who 
have  waded  through  blood  to  victory  are  not  easily  intimi 
dated  into  subjection  to  the  insult  and  outrage  legalized 
in  the  backward  districts.  The  efforts  of  the  reactionaries 
were  futile,  however,  and  the  Negroes  were  drawn  into  the 
army  in  much  larger  numbers  than  they  should  have  been. 
Although  constituting  one-tenth  of  the  population,  the 
Negro  element  furnished  thirteen  per  cent  of  the  soldiers 
called  to  the  colors.  At  the  same  time  the  European  na 
tions  had  not  sufficient  prejudice  to  hesitate  as  did 
Americans  in  deciding  the  question  of  employing  Negro 
troops.  There  were  280,000  Senegales  who  had  helped  to 
repel  the  Germans  on  the  Ourcq  and  the  Marne,  30,000 
Congolese,  and  about  20,000  from  the  British  West  Indies, 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          315 

who  also  did  their  part  in  saving  France  from  autocracy. 

When  the  American  Negro  was  finally  decided  upon  as 
desirable  for  the  army,  the  same  reactionaries  in  control  of 
the  Federal  Government  endeavored  to  restrict  them  in  the 
service.      Negroes    had    to    register    under     Restriction 
methods  of  discrimination,  that  they  might     in  the  service 
not  be  confused  with  the  whites.     No  pro 
vision    in    the    beginning   was   made    for    training   Negro 
officers,  and  southern  congressmen  urged  that  all  Negroes 
be  confined  to  stevedore  regiments  to  labor  under  white 
commissioned  and  non-commissioned  officers.     Fearing  that 
this  would  be  done,  Negro  leaders  protested,  charging  the 
War    Department    with    conscripting    Negroes    for    labor. 
The  Secretary  of  War,  of  course,  assured  them  that  nothing 
of  the  sort  was  planned  when  it  was  actually  being  done. 

To  the  Service  of  Supply  regiments  most  Negro  draftees 
were  sent.  Not  less  than  three-fourths  of  the  200,000  of 
the  Negroes  sent  to  France  were  reduced  to  laborers.  It  re 
sulted  that  one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the  nation  was 
compelled  by  a  country  fighting  for  democracy  abroad,  to 
supply  three-fourths  of  the  labor  of  the  ex-  in  the  Service 
peditionary  force.  They  were  commanded,  of  SuPP!y- 
moreover,  largely  by  illiterate,  prejudiced  white  men,  and 
finally  all  but  enslaved  in  the  Service  of  Supply  divisions 
abroad  by  unsympathetic  whites,  the  majority  of  whom 
were  southerners  on  the  order  of  slave  drivers.  These 
draftees  were  subjected  to  unnecessary  rigor ;  they  were  as 
signed  unusually  hard  tasks;  they  were  given  inadequate 
recreation,  while  white  soldiers  in  the  same  camp  were  ex 
empted  from  these  hardships.  Abusive  language,  kicks 
and  cuffs  and  injurious  blows  were  the  order  of  the  day  in 
dealing  with  the  Negroes  impressed  into  this  branch  of 
service.  As  there  were  in  these  camps  no  Negroes  in  touch 
with  the  outside  world  except  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  secretaries,  and  the  slave-driving  officers  sue- 


316  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

ceeded  in  displacing  some  of  these,  there  was  no  one  to 
whom  these  Negroes  could  take  a  complaint.  The  Bureau 
of  Negro  Economics  directed  by  George  E.  Haynes  in 
the  Department  of  Labor  was  very  busy  with  various  plans 
during  the  war,  but  did  not  seem  to  improve  the  life  of  the 
Negro  laborer  in  the  army  or  in  civil  life ;  and  the  services 
of  Emmett  J.  Scott  as  Special  Assistant  to  the  Secretary  of 
War  had  little  bearing  on  the  situation. 

These  Negroes,  however,  accepted  their  lot  as  good  sol 
diers.  Loyal  to  the  cause  of  humanity,  they  without  mur 
mur  faced  humiliation,  hardships,  and  insult.  But  the  uni- 
Loyal  in  versal  opinion  is  that  the  Negro  stevedore,  in 

spite  of  dis-  spite  of  all  he  had  to  endure,  was  the  best  la- 
crimination 

borer  in  the  war  and  that  without  this  efficient 

service  the  Allies  could  not  have  been  supplied  with  food  and 
munitions  rapidly  enough  to  save  them  from  exhaustion. 
These  men  were  stationed  at  the  English  and  French  ports 
and  at  depots  like  that  at  Givres,  where  millions  of  Amer 
ican  wealth  handled  by  25,000  men  passed  through  enor 
mous  masses  of  warehouses  with  140  miles  of  interior  rail 
road  lines  for  the  handling  of  freight.  They  unloaded  the 
transports,  prepared  the  vehicles  to  convey  the  supplies 
to  the  interior,  and  built  depots  for  storing  them.  When 
the  way  to  the  expeditionary  force  lay  through  woods  and 
over  hills,  the  labor  battalions  built  roads  from  the  port  of 
entry  to  the  front.  They,  moreover,  buried  the  dead,  sal 
vaged  war  material,  and  detonated  explosives  scattered  over 
France  by  the  enemy. 

The  Negroes  were  diplomatically  told  that  they  would  be 
drafted  to  fight  in  the  ranks  as  other  men.  The  War  De 
partment,  however,  was  not  at  first  sure  that  the  army 
could  make  use  of  the  Negro  as  an  officer.  Seeing  what 
little  hope  this  situation  offered  the  thousands  of  well-edu 
cated  Negroes  who  in  the  army  would  be  serving  under  in 
ferior  whites,  the  students  and  a  few  members  of  the  faculty 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          317 

of  Howard  University  instituted  a  nation-wide  campaign 
for  a  training  camp  in  which  Negroes  of  certain  educa 
tional  qualifications  should  have  the  opportunity  to  qualify 
as  officers  in  the  national  service.      As  this    The  demand 
movement  soon  had  the  support  of  all  Negro     for  Negro 
schools  of  consequence  and  was  promoted,  too, 
by  many  white  and  black  citizens,  the  War  Department 
was  forced  to  take  the  matter  under  advisement.     After 
some    hesitation    the     ad 
ministration  decided  to  es 
tablish  at  Fort  Des  Moines 
a    camp    for    the    training 
of  colored   officers.     There 
was,    however,    much    ap 
prehension  as  to  how  the 
experiment     would     work 
out   and  still   more    as   to 
whether  the  United  States 
Government    would    actu 
ally    commission    a    large 
number1  of   Negro   officers. 
Six  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  of  the  twelve  hundred    COL.  CHARLES  YOUSG,  the  highest 

ranking  Negro   graduate  of  West 


Point 


accepted  at  the  camp,  how 
ever,  were  commissioned 
in  October,  1917,  and  the  country  saw  going  hither  and 
thither  the  largest  number  of  Negroes  who  had  ever  worn 
the  stripes  and  bars. 

The  Negro  officer,  however,  had  already  been  proscribed. 
The  administration  had  granted  the  Negro  this  recogni 
tion  to  secure  the  support  of  the  Negroes  for  the  war,  but 
the  Negro  officer  was  not  desired  in  the  army,  proscription 
and  the  personnel  in  control  did  not  intend 
to  keep  him  there.  Colonel  Young  was  soon 
retired  because  of  high  blood  pressure  from  which  he  did 


318  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

not  dreadfully  suffer  until  in  a  tinxe  of  rapid  promo 
tion  in  the  army  it  seemed  likely  that  he  would  advance 
high  enough  to  command  too  many  white  men  and  disturb 
race  superiority  in  the  United  States.  Then  followed  in  the 
cantonments  the  campaign  to  discredit  and  force  the  Negro 
officer  out  of  the  army.  Through  the  Secretary  of  War, 
Emmett  J.  Scott  was  able  to  counteract  some  of  these  efforts 
made  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States. 

This  attack,  however,  finally  centered  on  the  Negro 
officer  in  action  in  France,  as  it  was  a  little  difficult  to  do 
here  some  things  which  could  be  effected  abroad  before  the 
Fighting  the  War  Department  could  intervene.  In  the 
Negro  officer  92nd  Division,  in  which  most  of  the  Negroes 
n  ranee.  trained  at  Fort  Des  Moines  served,  the  Negro 
officer  suffered  unusually.  The  division  was  placed  in 
command  of  an  incompetent  man,  General  Ballou,  who,  sur 
rounded  by  officials  prejudiced  against  the  Negro,  became 
unduly  influenced  thereby  and  shaped  his  policy  accord 
ingly.  He  showed  very  little  judgment  in  trying  to  force 
his  division  to  accept  race  discrimination,  and  still  less  in 
criticizing  Negro  officers  in  the  presence  of  their  subordi 
nates,  saying  that  they  were  failures  before  they  had  been 
tested.  Wherever  Negro  officers  were  stationed,  moreover, 
a  systematic  effort  was  made  to  get  rid  of  them  by  bring 
ing  them  as  early  as  possible  before  efficiency  boards  to  find 
excuses  for  their  retirement  or  assignment  to  labor  bat 
talions.  In  regiments  where  there  were  all  Negroes,  as  in 
the  New  York  Fifteenth,  from  which  Colonel  Hayward,  the 
white  commander,  secured  the  transfer  of  all  Negro  officers 
after  retiring  a  few  for  inefficiency,  the  same  end  was 
reached.  The  staff  could  then  contend  that  as  additional  of 
ficers  thereafter  were  necessary  and  other  Negro  officers 
could  not  be  supplied,  the  regiment  would  have  to  take 
on  white  officers  altogether,  since  officers  of  the  two  races 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War 


320  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

could  not  serve  together.  Many  superior  officers  openly 
asked  that  white  officers  be  sent  to  their  regiments  regard 
less  of  the  question  of  efficiency. 

To  carry  out  this  purpose  grave  complaints  were  filed 
against  the  Negro  officers.  They  were  often  charged  with 
cowardice,  although  the  Negro  soldier  was  by  the  same  man 
Methods  used,  praised  for  his  bravery.  Such  a  charge  was 
preferred  against  four  officers  of  the  368th  Regiment  who, 
having  received  the  wrong  orders  and  finding  themselves 
entangled  in  barb  wire  while  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy's 
guns,  retreated.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  troops  had  not 
been  prepared  for  this  attack.  They  were  without  maps, 
without  hand  grenades,  and  without  adequate  ammunition. 
Major  Elser,  a  white  officer  supposed  to  be  leading  them, 
was  nowhere  to  be  found  during  the  engagement.  Two  of 
the  Negro  Captains,  according  to  Ralph  W.  Tyler,  a  war 
correspondent,  after  they  had  gone  over  the  top  and  had 
run  into  a  nest  of  machine  guns,  turned  back  and  asked  for 
support  and  got  the  third  battalion.  But  they  could  not 
get  into  touch  with  their  Major,  who,  immediately  after  the 
engagement  became  serious,  had  retired  to  the  rear  some 
where,  making  it  impossible  for  the  captain  to  connect  with 
him  to  secure  orders.  This  Major,  however,  because  of 
the  failure  of  the  engagement  under  such  circumstances, 
charged  the  Negro  officers  with  cowardice  and  inefficiency. 
As  a  reward  for  his  cowardice,  however,  he  was  a  few  days 
thereafter  raised  to  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  and 
given  command  of  a  Negro  regiment.  An  investigation  by 
the  Secretary  of  War  showed  that  these  officers  were  not  to 
be  blamed  and  he  exonerated  them,  taking  occasion  to  laud 
these  and  other  Negro  soldiers  for  their  valor  and  patri 
otism. 

In  keeping  with  the  policy  of  eliminating  Negro  officers, 
from  the  army,  Colonel  Allan  J.  Greer  addressed  a  letter 
for  this  purpose  to  Senator  K.  D.  McKellar,  in  violation  of 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          321 

a  law  which,  in  a  country  believing  in  justice,  would  sub 
ject  him  to  court  martial.    Pointing  out  the  so-called  weak 
ness  in  the  Negro  officer  he  said:     "Now  that  a  reorgani 
zation  of  the  army  is  in  prospect,  and  as  all       A  step  be- 
officers  of  the  temporary  forces  have  been       y°nd  Bounds. 
asked  if  they  desire  to  remain  in  the  regular  army,   I 
think  I  ought  to  bring  a  matter  to  your  attention  that 
is  of  vital  importance,  not  only  from  a  military  point  of 
view  but  from  that  which  all  Southerners  have.     I  refer 
to  the  question  of  Negro  officers  and  Negro  troops. 

"The  record  of  the  division,"  said  he,  "is  one  which 
will  probably  never  be  given  full  publicity,  but  the  bare 
facts  are  about  as  follows:  We  came  to  France  in  June, 
we  were  given  seven  weeks  in  the  training  area  instead  of 
the  four  weeks  in  training  area  as  usually  allotted,  then 
went  to  a  quiet  sector  of  the  front.  From  there  we  went 
to  Argonne,  and  in  the  offensive  starting  there  on  Septem 
ber  26,  had  one  regiment  in  the  line,  attached  to  the  38th 
French  Corps.  They  failed  there  in  all  their  missions, 
laid  down  and  sneaked  to  the  rear,  until  they  were  with 
drawn.  Thirty  of  the  officers  of  this  regiment  alone  were 
reported  either  for  cowardice  or  failure  to  prevent  their 
men  from  retreating,  and  this  against  very  little  opposi 
tion.  The  French  and  our  white  field  officers  did  all  that 
could  possibly  have  been  done ;  but  the  troops  were  impos 
sible.  One  of  our  Majors  commanding  a  battalion  said, 
*  The  men  are  rank  cowards ;  there  is  no  other  word  for  it. '  " 

While  these  white  officers  of  superior  rank  were  per 
sistently  trying  to  weed  out  the  Negro  officers  on  the 
grounds  of  their  inefficiency,  the  French,  who  were  fortu 
nately  brigaded  with  some  of  the  troops  com-  Praised  by 
manded  by  them,  had  nothing  but  words  of  the  French, 
praise  for  their  gallant  leadership.  Among  the  French 
officers  of  consequence  who  thus  complimented  them  were 
Colonel  Tupes  and  General  Goybet.  In  fact,  the  French 


322  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

officers,  easily  observing  that  the  trouble  with  the  Negro 
officer  and  his  American  superior  was  merely  a  question  of 
color,  often  interfered  to  save  many  a  Negro  officer  from 
humiliation  and  from  dishonorable  discharge  from  the 
army.  That  there  was  no  truth  in  the  reports  as  to  the 
general  inefficiency  of  the  Negro  officer  is  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that  the  370th  (the  8th  Illinois),  which  was  officered 
throughout  by  Negroes,  rendered  such  gallant  service  that 
it  received  more  citations  and  croix  de  guerre  than  any 
other  American  regiment  in  France.  And  many  wondered 
how  it  could  be  possible  for  a  Negro  to  be  such  a  good 
soldier  and  have  no  possibility  for  leadership. 

It  is  true  that  some  Negro  officers  were  inefficient;  and 
so  were  many  whites,  thousands  of  whom  could  not  stand 
the  ordeal.  It  is  true  also  that  it  does  not  make  for  the 
The  criticism  morale  of  the  army  to  criticize,  abuse  and 
unjust.  humiliate  an  officer  in  the  presence  of  his  men. 

If  the  white  officers  could  not  by  army  regulations  be  forced 
to  respect  the  Negro  officers,  how  could  the  Negro  soldiers 
be  expected  to  do  so?  Yet  it  is  not  true  that  the  Negro 
soldiers  in  France  did  not  respect  and  follow  their  Negro 
officers.  Unusually  proud  of  the  honor  conferred  upon 
men  of  their  race,  they  rather  treated  them  with  every 
mark  of  respect.  The  Negro  officers  were  not  lowered  in 
the  estimation  of  the  Negro  soldiers  by  the  whiff  and  scorn 
of  the  white  officers  higher  in  the  ranks,  for  the  same  dart 
of  prejudice  hurled  at  the  Negro  officer  was  also  directed 
against  Negro  soldiers.  They  were  all  in  common  to  be 
socially  proscribed  in  France  by  Americans  while  fighting 
to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy. 

A  few  cases  in  evidence  will  be  interesting.  Certain 
colored  troops  were  ordered  to  sail  on  the  battleship 
Virginia,  but  after  going  aboard,  the  officer  in  charge  had 
Insult.  these  troops  removed  on  the  ground  that  no 

colored  troops  had  ever  traveled  on  board  a  United  States 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          323 

battleship.  Where  under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would 
have  been  sometimes  necessary  for  officers  of  both  races  to 
eat  together,  special  arrangements  were  made  so  as  to  have 
the  whites  report  to  certain  quarters  while  the  blacks  went 
to  another,  the  blacks  having  in  most  of  these  cases  inferior 
accommodations.  Planning  for  a  reception  of  General 
Pershing  at  one  of  the  forwarding  camps,  General  Logan 
ordered  that  all  troops  except  Negroes  should  be  under 
arms.  Negro  troops  not  at  work  were  to  be  in  their  quar 
ters  or  in  their  tents. 

Every  effort  was  made  to  separate  the  Negro  soldiers 
from  the  French  people.  General  Ervin,  desiring  to  re 
duce  the  Negro  soldier  to  the  status  of  undesirables,  issued 
among  other  regulations  in  his  order  Num-  Prejudice  in 
her  40  a  proclamation  that  Negroes  should  not  the  army- 
associate  with  French  women.  The  order,  of  course,  was 
not  obeyed,  but  an  effort  was  made  to  enforce  it  even  in 
the  case  of  Negro  officers.  Some  Negro  officers  who  were  in 
school  at  Vannes  accepted  the  invitation  to  attend  certain 
entertainments  given  for  charity  as  Franco-American 
dances  requiring  an  admission  fee.  Upon  hearing  of  this, 
General  Horn  prohibited  their  attendance  by  ordering  that 
no  officer  of  the  167th  Brigade  should  be  permitted  to  at 
tend  a  dance  where  a  fee  was  charged,-  although  the  white 
officers  at  this  same  school,  but  belonging  to  other  brigades, 
could  attend. 

To  extend  systematically  the  operation  of  race  prejudice 
throughout  France  the  Americans  had  issued,  August  7, 
1918,  through  a  French  mission  from  General  Pershing 's 
headquarters  certain  Secret  Information  con-          A  bold 
cerning  Black  American  Troops.     The  Amer-          slander, 
icans  proclaimed  that  it  was  important  for  French  officers 
in  command  of  black  Americans  to  have  an  idea  as  to  the 
status  of  the  race  in  the  United  States.     The  Negroes  were 
branded  as  a  menace  of  degeneracy  which  could  be  escaped 


324 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


only  by  an  impassable  gulf  established  between  the  two 
races,  and  especially  so  because  of  the  tendency  of  the 
blacks  to  commit  the  loathsome  crime  of  assault,  as  they 
said  the  Negroes  had  already  been  doing  in  France.  The 
French  were,  therefore,  cautioned  not  to  treat  the  Negroes 

with  familiarity  and  in 
dulgence,  which  are  mat 
ters  of  grievous  concern 
to  Americans  and  an  af 
front  to  their  national 
policy.  The  Americans, 
it  continued,  were  afraid 
that  the  blacks  might 
thereby  be  inspired  with 
undesirable  aspirations. 
It  w  a  s  carefully  ex 
plained  that  although 
the  black  man  is  a  citi 
zen  of  the  United  States 
he  is  regarded  by  the 
whites  as  an  inferior 
with  whom  relations  of 
MAJOR  JOEL  E.  SPINGABN,  an  enemy  hn«4inPQQ  and  Q  P  r  v  i  p  p 
of  prejudice  in  the  army 

only   are  possible;  that 

the  black  is  noted  for  his  want  of  intelligence,  lack  of  dis 
cretion,  and  lack  of  civic  and  professional  conscience.  The 
French  Army  then  was  advised  to  prevent  intimacy  be 
tween  French  officers  and  black  officers,  not  to  eat  with 
them  nor  shake  hands  nor  seek  to  talk  or  meet  with  them 
outside  of  the  requirements  of  military  service.  They  were 
asked  also  not  to  commend  too  highly  the  black  American 
troops  in  the  presence  of  white  Americans.  Although  it 
was  all  right  to  recognize  the  good  qualities  and  service 
of  black  Americans,  it  should  be  done  in  moderate  terms 
strictly  in  keeping  with  the  truth.  The  French  were  urged 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War          325 

also  to  restrain  the  native  cantonment  population  from 
spoiling  the  Negroes,  as  white  Americans  become  greatly 
incensed  at  any  deep  expression  of  intimacy  between  white 
women  and  black  men. 

From  accessible  evidence  it  is  clear  that  if  some  of  the 
American  soldiers  had  struggled  as  hard  to  defeat  the  Ger 
mans  as  they  did  to  implant  race  prejudice  in  France,  the 
army  would  have  been  much  nearer  the  Rhine  when  the  arm 
istice  was  signed.  They  failed,  however,  to  bring  the  French 
around  to  their  way  of  seeing  liberty,  and  the  Negroes,  in 
appreciation  for  the  democracy  of  France  as  they  saw  it  and 
felt  it,  willingly  sacrificed  their  lives  to  save  the  beautifully 
humane  people.  Whether  in  Champagne,  in  the  Argonne 
Forest  or  at  Metz,  it  was  the  history  of  the  Negro  repeating 
itself — unflinching  stand  before  the  brutal  enemy,  eager 
ness  to  engage  in  the  conflict,  and  noble  daring  endurance 
in  the  heat  of  the  battle.  Many  a  white  The  Negro  as 
soldier,  many  a  while  officer,  returned  with  a  fighter, 
the  testimony  that  they  were  braver  than  any  white  man 
that  ever  lived.  They  fought  the  enemy  from  behind  and 
in  the  front  and  still  came  out  the  victor.  But  they  were 
not  merely  victors.  A  score  of  them,  like  Roberts  and 
Johnson  of  the  New  York  Fifteenth,  returned  as  heroes 
decorated  by  France  for  their  bravery  in  action  and  their 
glorious  triumph  over  Germans  by  whom  they  were  greatly 
outnumbered. 

Thinking  that  the  record  of  the  Negro  in  France  might 
be  taken  as  a  reason  for  enlarging  his  measure  of  democ 
racy  for  which  he  fought,  the  Negro-hating  element  in  the 
army,  navy,  and  civilian  life  organized  to  The  welcome 
prevent  this  even  before  the  close  of  the  war.  home- 
They  tried  so  to  intimidate  the  Negroes  on  their  return 
home  that  they  might  remain  content  to  continue  in  a 
position  of  recognized  inferiority.  The  temper  of  edi 
torials  appearing  in  reactionary  newspapers  indicated 


326 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


a  hostile  reception  for  Negro  soldiers  returning  from  the 
war,  and  soon  southerners  openly  declared  that  such 
demands  would  be  firmly  met  with  opposition  typical  of 
the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  The  returning  Negro  soldier  was, 
therefore,  for  the  South,  an  object  of  contempt.  The 
very  uniform  on  a  Negro  was  to  the  southerner  like  a 
red  rag  thrown  in  the  face  of  a  bull.  Negro  soldiers  re- 


FIRST  SEPARATE  BATTALION  OF  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA,  receiving 
the  Croix  de  Guerre  in  France 

turning  to  the  South  then  were  beaten,  shot  down,  and 
lynched,  to  terrorize  the  blacks  insisting  on  better  treat 
ment  for  their  race.  They  were  not  guilty  of  the  viola 
tion  of  any  law,  but  the  South  considers  it  advisable  to 
lynch  a  few  Negroes  even  when  it  is  known  that  they  are 
innocent ;  for  it  generally  results  in  terrorizing  others  who 
might  otherwise  insist  that  they  be  treated  as  men. 

This  post-war  down-with-the-Negro  propaganda  spread 
from  the  South  into  some  points  in  the  North,  and  finally 


The  Negro  In  the  World  War  327 

reached  Washington,  the  capital  of  the  nation,  itself.  Dur 
ing  the  second  decade  of  the  century  Washington  was  south- 
ernized  by  an  influx  of  public  functionaries  and  civil  service 
employes  hypocritically  parading  as  promot-  Race  war  in 
ers  of  democracy  but  inalterably  attached  to  Washington, 
the  caste  of  color.  On  the  nineteenth  of  July,  1919,  then, 
there  appeared  in  the  streets  of  Washington,  a  number  of 
soldiers,  sailors  and  marines,  who  because  of  exaggerated  re 
ports  that  Negroes  had  assaulted  white  women  and  the  rumor 
that  the  wife  of  a  marine  had  been  thus  attacked,  proceeded 
to  the  southwest  section  of  Washington  where  they  beat  sev 
eral  innocent  Negroes.  On  Sunday,  the  following  day,  these 
whites  on  leave  from  the  United  States  Army  and  Navy, 
supported  by  civilians,  had  effected  a  better  organization 
to  carry  out  their  purposes.  They  formed  at  Pennsylvania 
Avenue  and  Seventh  Street  a  mob  which  took  over  the  city 
from  the  Capitol  to  the  White  House.  Negroes  were  pulled 
from  vehicles  and  street  cars  and  beaten  into  unconscious 
ness.  One  was  thus  taken  possession  of  by  the  mob  and 
beaten  unmercifully  right  in  front  of  the  White  House, 
where  the  President  must  have  heard  his  groans  but  has 
not  as  yet  uttered  a  word  of  protest.  Other  Negroes  were 
shot  and  left  to  die  on  the  streets. 

Going  along  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  that  night,  the  author 
himself  walked  into  the  midst  of  the  mob  at  the  intersec 
tion  of  Eighth  Street  and  Pennsylvania  Avenue.  Before 
he  realized  where  he  was,  there  resounded  shots  all  around 
him.  A  large  mob  swept  down  Pennsylvania  A  lynching  in 
Avenue  pursuing  a  Negro  yelling  for  mercy,  Washington, 
while  another  mob  at  the  debouchment  of  Eighth  Street 
had  caught  a  Negro  whom  they  conveniently  adjusted  for 
execution  and  shot  while  the  author,  walking  briskly  as 
possible  to  escape  the  same  fate  himself,  heard  the  harassing 
groans  of  the  Negro.  To  be  sure  that  their  murderous 


328  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

task  was  well  done  a  leader  yelled  to  the  executioners,  "Did 
you  get  him?"  The  reply  was,  "Yes,  we  got  him." 

The  events  of  the  following  day,  however,  showed  that  this 
mob  had  misjudged  the  Washington  Negroes.  They  made 
extensive  preparation  for  the  retaliatory  onslaught  of  the 
whites.  Weapons  were  bought,  houses  were  barricaded,  and 
high  powered  automobiles  were  armored  for  touring  the 
city  late  in  the  night.  The  augmented  police  force  and  the 
300  provost  guards  supplied  with  rifles  and  machine  guns 
did  not  deter  the  Negroes.  When  attacked  by  the  white 
mob  they  easily  stood  their  ground,  and  took  the  offensive 
when  the  white  mob  attempted  to  invade  Negro  quarters, 
although  Thomas  Armistead,  charging  in  defense  of  the 
Negroes,  fell  mortally  wounded.  Whereas  the  whites 
wounded  about  300  Negroes  the  Sunday  night  when  they 
were  not  expecting  the  attack,  the  casualty  list  of  Monday 
night  showed  two  Negroes  and  four  whites  killed  and  a 
much  larger  number  of  whites  wounded  than  Negroes. 

A  riot  almost  of  the  same  order  broke  out  in  Chicago  a  few 
weeks  later.  In  that  city  the  large  migration  of  Negroes  to 
its  industrial  plants  and  the  invasion  of  desirable  residen 
tial  districts  by  these  newcomers  incensed  the  whites  to 
the  point  of  precipitating  a  race  war.  The  Negroes,  how 
ever,  showed  by  the  number  of  whites  killed  the  same 
tendency  of  the  Washington  Negro  to  retaliate  when  at 
tacked  by  cowards.  The  Negro  helped  to  save  democracy 
abroad,  but  he  must  fight  to  enjoy  it  at  home. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  NEGRO  AND  SOCIAL  JUSTICE 

DURING  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  Negro  has  had 
some  ground  for  hope  in  the  forces  which  bid  fair  to  bring 
about  a  social  readjustment  involving  the  leveling  of  so 
ciety  if  not  the  elevation  of  the  underman  Impending 
to  rule  over  his  hitherto  so-called  superiors.1  crisis- 
All  elements  of  our  population  during  this  period  have 
been  subject  to  change  by  these  evolutionary  movements  at 
work  among  the  masses.  The  laboring  man  is  no  longer 
a  servile  employee  of  serf -like  tendencies,  but  a  radical  mem 
ber  of  a  dissatisfied  group,  demanding  a  proper  division  of 
the  returns  from  his  labor.  He  is  made  more  potential  in 
this  position  by  a  recent  propaganda  to  the  effect  that,  so  far 
as  the  laboring  man  is  concerned,  political  affiliation  means 
little,  since  all  parties  have  been  under  the  influence  of 
aristocratic  leaders,  who,  taking  advantage  of  the  ignorance 
of  their  constituents,  have  been  able  to  rule  this  country 
for  the  benefit  of  those  that  have  rather  than  in  the  inter 
est  of  those  that  have  not.  In  conformity  then  with  the 
cycles  of  government  borne  out  by  history,  this  country 
has  passed  through  the  stage  of  aristocracy  to  that  of  the 
white  man's  democracy  and  bids  fair  to  be  revolutionized 

i  This  study  may  be  further  extended  by  reading  W.  E.  B.  DuBoia's 
The  Soul  of  Black  Folk,  his  The  Negro," William  Picken's  The  New 
Negro,  Kelly  Miller's  Race  Adjustment,  Out  of  the  House  of  Bond 
age,  and  Appeal  to  Reason.  The  Atlanta  University  Studies  and 
the  Occasional  Papers  of  the  American  Negro  Academy  are  helpful. 
The  files  of  The  Crisis,  The  Messenger,  The  Crusader,  The  Boston 
Guardian,  The  Chicago  Defender  and  The  New  York  Age  should  be 
consulted. 

320 


330  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

in  the  near  future  by  the  rule  of  the  mob  represented  by 
so-called  organized  labor.  In  other  words,  the  country  has 
developed  from  aristocracy  to  frontier  democracy,  from 
frontier  democracy  to  progressivism  and  from  progres- 
sivism  almost  to  socialism.. 

This  has  been  all  but  true  even  in  the  South  where  this 
social  upheaval  has  expressed  itself  politically  in  the  rise 
of  the  poor  white  man.  During  the  days  of  slavery  the 
The  rise  of  South  and,  to  some  extent,  the  whole  country, 
the  poor  continued  under  the  domination  of  aristocratic 

slaveholders.  The  poor  whites,  driven  to  the 
uplands  and  the  mountains  where  slavery  was  unprofitable, 
never  accumulated  sufficient  wealth  to  attain  political  recog 
nition  enjoyed  by  those  living  near  the  coast,  despite  the  fact 
that  there  were  numerous  clashes,  urgent  debates,  charges, 
and  counter-charges  coming  from  discordant  elements  among 
the  mountain  whites  requiring  an  equalization  of  politi 
cal  power.  When,  however,  after  1850  and  especially  after 
the  Civil  War  there  resulted  an  extension  of  the  franchise, 
making  it  universal  free  manhood  suffrage,  the  poor  whites 
did  not  long  delay  in  realizing  the  power  given  them 
through  the  ballot.  Under  the  leadership  then  of  men 
Radical  like  James  K.  Vardaman,  Benjamin  Tillman, 

leaders.  an(j  Q0je  Blease,  these  uplanders  have  come 

into  their  own.  Lacking  that  sympathy  for  the  Negroes 
found  among  the  ex-slaveholders,  these  poor  whites  have 
in  getting  control  of  the  southern  governments,  however,  ef 
fected  sufficient  changes  to  deprive  the  blacks  of  their  civil 
and  political  rights  and  even  of  some  economic  opportuni 
ties.  Giving  so  much  attention  to  the  perpetuation  of 
caste,  then,  the  molders  of  public  opinion  in  the  South 
have  not  permitted  the  radically  democratic  movements 
to  invade  that  section.  There  it  was  discovered  that 
it  would  be  impossible  to  live  up  to  the  principles  set  forth 
without  giving  the  Negroes  a  larger  share  of  social  and 


The  Negro  and  Social  Justice 


331 


political  privileges.  In  the  North,  where  a  smaller  number 
of  Negroes  have  been  found,  there  has  not  been  any  serious 
handicap  to  such  movements.  So  far  as  the  The  situation 
Single  Taxers,  the  Socialists,  and  the  Bolshe-  ta  tlie  Nortn. 
viki  are  concerned,  the  Negro  may  share  at  their  table  the 
same  blessings  vouchsafed  to  others.  The  rank  and  file  of 

the  people,  however,  have 
hesitated  to  recognize  the 
Negro.  Leaders  in  the 
_North  are  still  trying  to 
decide  how  large  a  share 
of  social  justice,  how  much 
of.-t.hft  workl-wide  democ 
racy,  the  Negro  should  en- 

The  Negro,  however,  has 
been  loath  to 
drift  into  an 
archy.  His  claim  for  social 
justice  is  rightly  based  on 
his  work  as  a  conservative 
and  constructive  force  in 
the  countrx_Although  the 
present  day  encroachment! 
on  the  part  of  the  degraded 


Conservatism 
of  tlie 


JAMES  WELDON  JOHNSON,  Secretary 

of  the  National  Association  for  the 

Advancement  of  Colored  People 

rnany  Negroes  to  take  up 

arms  s_m  selMefense^js^in  Houston,  Washington,  and 
Chicago,  in  Elaine,  Arkansas,  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  and 
Tulsa,  Oklahoma,  the  blacks  have  not  and  do  not  desire  to 
become  radical.  Increasing  persecution,  however,  is  gradu 
ally  forcing  Negroes  on  the  defensive  into  the  ranks  of  the 
Socialists  and  Radicals.  Negro  preachers,  editors,  and 
teachers,  who  have  for  years  pleaded  at  the  bar  of  public 
opinion  for  the  recognition  of  the  Negro  as  a  man,  now  find 


332  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

themselves  unconsciously  allied  with  the  most  radical  forces 
in  the  United  States.  This,  of  course,  if  not  arrested  by  a 
more  sympathetic  consideration  of  the  Negro's  rights,  may 
increase  the  ranks  of  the  malcontents  to  the  extent  of  ef 
fecting  a  general  upheaval  in  this  country. 

It  is  well  to  note  that  there  no  longer  exists  a  frontier 
with  all  of  its  opportunities  for  free  arable  land,  where 
in  the  midst  of  so  many  changes,  frontiersmen  passed  so 
rapidly  through  the  various  stages  of  the  civilization  of  the 
backwoods,  the  farm,  the  town  and  the  city  that  in  a 
generation  they  became  thoroughly  Americanized.  Since 
1890  we  have  been  confronted  with  the  aftermath  of  the 
frontier — the  increase  of  restlessness,  pessimism  and  revo 
lutionary  sentiment,  aggravated  by  the  presence  of  un- 
Americanized  foreigners  who,  no  longer  able  to  go  West, 
must  remain  in  our  large  cities  to  wage  war  against  the 
capitalists  whom  they  now  consider  the  source  of  all  their 
evils. 

Labor  and  capital  now  face  ea,ch  other  in  the  cities  in 
a  restricted  area,  and  each  has  to  combine  to  protect  its 
The  conflict  interests.  The  combination  of  capital  was 
in  cities.  impossible  when  land  was  abundant  and  in 

dividualism  was  strong.  To  protect  the  weak  we  are  now 
reduced  to  a  new  sort  of  radicalism  which  differs  from  that 
of  the  European  Socialists  in  that  while  the  latter  are  try 
ing  to  build  a  democracy  out  of  the  remains  of  monarchial 
life,  our  malcontents  are  resorting  to  various  political  ex 
periments  to  hold  on  to  the  ideals  of  the  frontier  which 
have  been  shattered  by  the  concentration  of  the  population 
in  cities.  There  has  followed,  therefore,  such  assimilation 
of  the  black  and  white  people  to  urban  conditions  as  to 
mark  an  epoch  in  the  making  of  our  civilization,  effecting 
a  revolution  not  only  in  industry  but  in  politics,  society, 
and  life  itself.  The  rural  society  has  been  destroyed  by 
commercialism,  which  has  transformed  the  majority  of  the 


The  Negro  and  Social  Justice  333 

American  people  into  commercial  beings.  As  more  than 
half  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  now  live  in  urban 
communities  of  over  5000  inhabitants,  the  problems  of  this 
country  tomorrow  will  be  the  problems  of  the  city.  As  the 
cities  are  now  in  control  of  the  most  radical  elements  in 

the    United    States,    it    is     

only  a  matter  of  time  be 
fore  the  national  policy 
will  be  dominated  by  radi 
cal  thought,  and  men  dis 
posed  to  hold  on  to  the 
best  in  republican  govern 
ment  should  think  seri 
ously  of  the  danger  of 
driving  by  persecution  in 
to  the  ranks  of  this  unre 
strained  element  the  Ne 
groes,  who  constitute  the 
most  conservative  and  the 
most  constructive  stock  in 
America. 

With  the  migration   of 
a  large  number  of  Negroes 
to    northern    cities,    how 
ever,  there  have  been  tend 
encies     indicating     that 
wherever  Negroes  are  nu 
merous  enough  to  impress  themselves  upon  the  community, 
disturbing  race  prejudice  develops.     We  hear,  therefore, 
of  the   agitation   for  separate   schools   in         Race  conflict. 
Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  Columbus,  Indianapolis,  and  Chi 
cago.     There  is  also  a  desire  among  certain  whites,   not 
necessarily    to    segregate    the    Negroes    by    special    ordi 
nances  to  that  effect,  but  by  a  common  understanding  to 
restrict  them   to   certain   parts   of  the   cities  where   they 


MARY  WHITE  OVIXGTOX,  Chairman 
of    the   Board   of    Directors   of    the 
National    Association   for   the   Ad 
vancement    of    Colored    People 


334  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

may  not  come  into  such  close  contact  with  the  so-called 
superior  whites.  Eace  prejudice  in  these  parts  then  has 
become  much  more  volcanic  at  times  than  it  is  in  cer 
tain  sections  of  the  South,  as  was  evidenced  by  the  recent 
riots  at  Chester,  Pennsylvania,  Youngstown,  Ohio,  East 
St.  Louis,  and  Chicago.  Although  it  does  not  appear 
that  any  part  of  the  North  has,  as  in  the  case  of  the  re 
gions  like  that  around  Tyler,  Texas,  developedjnto  what 
may  be  properly  styled  ^mffinal  Community,  it  has  shown 
possibilities  in  that  direction. 

The  greatest  difficulty  of  all  which  the  Negroes  have  had 
in  the  North  has  been  the  problem  of  earning  a  living. 
When  the  North  had  few  Negroes  on  its  hands  it  was  an 
The  economic  unusually  pleasant  experience  for  a  Negro 
problem.  to  g0  to  tjiat  section  and  spend  his  money 

without  restriction,  enjoying  all  of  the  social  privileges 
usually  denied  the  Negroes  in  the  South.  But  until  re 
cently  it  had  always  been  extremely  difficult  for  the  same 
persons  of  color  permitted  to  worship  in  a  white  church 
or  to  attend  a  white  school  to  earn  a  living  among  these 
same  sympathetic  persons.  It  is  only  since  1916,  when  the 
Negroes  went  North  in  such  large  numbers  as  to  enable 
employers  to  hire  enough  of  them  to  take  over  the  entire 
operation  of  plants,  that  they  have  easily  succeeded  in 
finding  employment. 

This  difficulty  has  seemed  a  problem  impossible  of  solu 
tion  for  the  reason  that  back  of  the  protests  against  the  em 
ployment  of  Negroes' in  higher  pursuits  have  been  the  trades 
Trades  unions.  unions,  wielding  such  power  that  in  the  eco 
nomic  world  their  will  has  been  law.  Several  years  ago 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  declared  that  its  pur 
pose  was  for  the  organization  of  all  working  people  with 
out  regard  to  class,  race,  religion,  or  politics;  that  many 
organizations  affiliated  with  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  had  within  their  membership  Negro  workmen  with 


The  Negro  arid  Social  Justice  335 


all  other  workers  of  trades ;  and  that  the  American  Federa 
tion  of  Labor  had  made  and  was  making  every  effort  with 
in  its  power  for  the  organization  of  these  workmen.  This, 
however,  was  largely  diplomacy;  but  a  change  of  attitude 
was  evident  as  early  as  1910  when  the  national  council  of 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  unanimously  passed  a 
resolution  inviting  persons 
of  all  races  to  join,  giving 
also  instructions  for  mak 
ing  a  special  effort  to  or 
ganize  Negroes,  in  1913. 
It  required  the  dearth  of 
labor  during  the  World 
War,  however,  to  give  the 
Negroes  such  a  basis  for 
economic  freedom  in  the 
North  as  to  secure  actual 
consideration  from  the 
trades  unions.  Seeing  that 
Negroes  had  to  be  em 
ployed  and  that  they 
would  be  worth  so  much 
more  to  the  trades  unions 
than  the  latter  would  be  to 
the  Negroes,  the  American 
Federation  of  La,bor  feebly  expressed  a  desire  for  the  or 
ganization  of  Negro  laborers  as  units  of  the  various  trades 
unions. 

In  carrying  out  this  program,  however,  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  was  taking  high  ground.  In  fact,  it 
found  itself  far  in  advance  of  the  sentiment  favorable  to 
the  Negro  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  local  trades  unions 
themselves.  There  was  a  tendency  nominally  The  position 
to  admit  the  Negroes  to  the  union  when  it  of  the  unions, 
was  found  that  their  competition  was  such  as  to  necessitate 


DR.  F.  J.  GRIMKE,  a  preacher  of  the 
New    Democracy 


336  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

their  admission,  and  thereafter,  by  certain  excuses  and  pe 
culiar  methods  of  evasion,  to  employ  white  men  in  prefer 
ence  to  the  Negroes,  although  the  latter  might  be  mem 
bers  of  the  union.  During  the  migration,  however,  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  had  to  take  another  stand. 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Federation  in  1916, 
therefore,  it  was  reported  that  the  Negroes  who  were  then 
being  brought  North  were  to  fill  the  places  of  union  men 
demanding  better  conditions  and  it  was,  therefore,  felt 
necessary  to  take  steps  to  organize  these  Negroes  who  were 
coming  in  rather  large  numbers  to  be  checked  by  strikes 
and  riots. 

The  following  year,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor, 
after  giving  more  attention  than  ever  to  the  situation  of 
Attention  labor  conditions  among  the  blacks,  found  it- 
given  self  somewhat  handicapped  because  of  the 
Negroes.  fact  that  not  Qnlv  wag  there  an  antipathy  of 

the  Negro  toward  the  labor  unions,  but  they  were  not  in 
formed  as  to  their  operations  and  their  benefits.  It  was, 
therefore,  urged  that  a  Negro  organizer  be  appointed  to 
extend  the  work  of  these  trades  unions  among  them. 
Many  of  the  delegates  assembled  thought  it  advisable  to 
suggest  that  at  the  peace  table  closing  up  the  World  War 
the  American  people  should  endeavor  to  influence  the 
nations  participating  in  this  conference  to  agree  upon  a 
plan  of  turning  over  the  continent  of  Africa  or  certain 
parts  thereof  to  the  African  race  and  those  descendants  of 
the  same  residing  in  this  country. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  in 
Atlantic  City  in  1919,  there  was  reached  the  decision  to  ad 
mit  Negroes  indiscriminately  into  the  various  trades  unions, 
The  American  enJ°yin£  the  same  privileges  as  the  whites. 
Federation  of  Proclaiming  thus  so  boldly  the  abolition  of 
Labor  in  1919.  race  (junction  in  the  labor  organizations,  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  has  at  least  laid  the  foun- 


The  Negro  and  Social  Justice  337 

dation  for  the  economic  advancement  of  the  blacks.  This 
declaration,  however,  must  be  accepted  merely  as  a  basis 
upon  which  the  Negro  may  take  his  stand  for  the  economic 
struggle  before  him.  Broad  as  the  decision  may  seem, 
it  must,  like  any  other  law  or  constitution,  be  carried  out  by 
persons  who,  if  not  sympathetically  disposed,  may  give  this 
decision  such  an  interpretation  as  to  make  it  mean  nothing. 
Liberal  as  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  may  now  be, 
moreover,  the  Negroes  to  come  into  their  own,  enjoying  eco 
nomic  liberty,  must  still  bring  about  such  changes  in  the 
laws  and  constitutions  of  the  labor  locals  as  to  permit  the 
carrying  out  of  the  purpose  of  the  national  body.  As  the 
matter  now  stands,  then,  the  victory  has  been  won  in  the  na 
tional  council,  but  the  battle  is  yet  to  be  waged  in  the 
locals. 

A  number  of  Negroes,  not  content  with  the  efforts  for  their 
economic  advancement  made  from  without,  have  endeavored 
to  remedy  their  own  evils  through  agencies  either  estab 
lished  by  Negroes  or  by  white  persons  closely  cooperating 
with  them.  One  of  the  factors  in  effecting  Efforts 
the  proper  distribution  of  labor  during  the  among 
World  War  and  in  securing  for  them  justice  Negroes, 
in  many  communities  where  they  would  have  otherwise 
been  imposed  upon,  was  the  National  League  on  Urban 
Conditions  among  Negroes.  This  is  an  organization  with 
eighteen  branches  dealing  with  the  Negro  laboring,  depend 
ent,  and  delinquent  classes  in  the  various  large  cities. 
The  Negroes  have  organized  also  in  New  York  a  Negro  la 
bor  union  largely  intended  to  find  employment  for  Negroes 
rather  than  to  secure  an  increase  in  their  wages.  In  the 
Southwest,  there  has  been  organized  the  Inter-State  Asso 
ciation  of  Negro  Trainmen  of  America,  intended  to  perfect 
the  union  of  all  unorganized  railway  employees  of  color. 
During  the  World  War  there  have  been  several  such  or 
ganizations  following  in  the  wake  of  this,  and  recently  an 


338 


The  Negro  In  Our  History 


effort  has  been  made  to  effect  the  organization  of  a  national 
body  which  will  be  for  the  Negroes  just  what  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  has  been  for  the  whites. 

The  Negroes  have  sought  justice,  too,  not  by  trying  to 
force  themselves  socially  on  the  whites,  but  by  certain  im- 
A  just  provements  in  the  situations  in  which  they 

now  are.  One  of  their  attacks  is  directed 
against  the  poor  railroad  accommodations  in  the  separate 
cars  and  stations  assigned  Negroes  in  the  South.  They 

complain  also  of  the  in 
adequate  school  facilities, 
contending  that  it  is  poor 
logic  to  insist  that  the  Ne 
groes  must  be  denied  cer 
tain  privileges  because  of 
their  undeveloped  state 
and  at  the  same  time  be 
refused  those  opportuni 
ties  for  improvement  nec 
essary  to  make  themselves 
worthy  of  those  privileges 
which  they  are  denied. 
They  have  insisted  that 
certain  recreational  facili 
ties  be  given  the  Negroes 
in  the  interest  of  their 
contentment  and  health, 
which  are  essential  to  the 
maintenance  of  that  physical  strength  necessary  to  effi 
cient  labor.  They  have  wisely  contended  also  that  if  the 
white  man  is  the  superior  of  the  two,  the  Negro  must  be 
brought  into  sufficiently  close  contact  with  the  whites  so 
as  to  learn  by  example.  Segregation  will  tend  to  keep  one 
part  of  a  community  backward  while  the  other  is  hopelessly 
struggling  to  go  forward. 


A.  H.  GRIMKE,  "A  Defender  of  His 
People" 


The  Negro  and  Social  Justice  339 

In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  South  has  spoken  out  more 
boldly  than  ever  for  a  more  radical  segregation  of  the  race, 
with  a  view  to  preventing  miscegenation.  Southern  lead 
ers  believe  that  if  you  permit  Negroes  to  be  Radical 
elevated  to  positions  of  importance,  it  will  be  reaction, 
only  a  matter  of  a  few  generations  before  they  will  be  suf 
ficiently  attractive  to  white  persons  to  promote  the  inter 
marriage  of  the  races.  Inalterably  attached  to  their  own 
ideal  and  believing  in  their  superiority  as  the  chosen  peo 
ple  of  God  in  line  of  succession  with  the  Jews,  the  whites 
have  insisted  upon  all  sorts  of  social  and  political  proscrip 
tion,  in  fact,  every  measure  necessary  to  discourage  the 
recrudescence  of  the  miscegenation  of  the  races.  There 
has  been,  therefore,  among  those  southerners  who  have  en 
deavored  to  fall  in  line  with  the  radical  democratic  and 
social  movement,  a  tendency  to  accept  the  program  so  far 
as  it  does  not  include  the  Negroes.  As  a  natural  conse 
quence,  then,  they  have  brought  around  to  their  way  of 
thinking  a  large  number  of  southern  men  who  have  gradu 
ally  gained  control  of  the  northern  press,  idealizing  the  in 
stitutions  of  the  South,  pitying  that  section  because  of 
being  handicapped  by  the  presence  of  the  Negro  and  de 
manding  for  the  freedman  exemption  from  unusual  cruel 
ties  and  persecution  only,  while  ignoring  the  clamor  for 
recognition  as  a  real  citizen  of  the  United  States. 

To  justify  this  position  there  have  come  forward  a  num 
ber  of  writers  disguised  as  scientific  investigators  to  prove 
by  psychology  and  ethnology  that  the  Negro  is  a  sort  of 
inferior  being.  They  disregard  the  conten-  Biased 
tion  of  the  world's  best  scientists  that  no  race  investigators, 
is  essentially  inferior  to  any  other  race  and  that  differ 
ences  in  civilization  have  resulted  from  varying  opportuni 
ties  and  environments.  Loath  to  give  up  this  theory  of 
superiority,  however,  they  have  devised  various  schemes  to 
make  a  case  for  the  natural  superiority  of  the  white  man. 


340  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

Among  these  methods  have  been  the  collection  of  data  in 
tended  to  show  that  the  Negro  is  naturally  a  criminal. 
Some  have  made  psychological  measurements  of  various 
types  of  humanity  with  a  view  to  proving  that  the  Negro 
is  mentally  weaker  than  other  peoples.  Others  are  busy 
writing  history  of  the  countries  outside  of  Africa  to  prove 
that  the  Negroes  in  Africa  are  inferior  to  races  without. 

A  passing  remark  as  to  these  methods  may  be  worth 
while.  In  almost  all  of  the  investigations  as  to  the  crime 
of  the  Negroes  the  evidence  is  ex  parte.  No  man  should 
Unscientific  be  condemned  as  a  criminal  merely  on  the 
conclusions.  testimony  of  his  enemies.  In  the  matter  of 
criminal  statistics  of  the  Negro  the  evidence  is  always 
questionable,  for  the  white  man  is  the  sole  judge.  He 
makes  the  arrest,  determines  the  guilt  of  the  Negro,  and 
applies  the  penalty.  Just  as  during  the  days  of  slavery 
prejudiced  masters  spoke  of  the  crimes  of  their  slaves 
and  branded  free  Negroes  as  pariahs  of  society,  so  now  we 
hear  the  same  concerning  the  Negroes.  In  other  words,  all 
of  this  evidence  is  from  those  persons  who,  making  desire 
the  father  of  thought,  have  issued  statements  without 
evidence  to  support  them.  Such  so-called  statistics  of  the 
whites  adversely  critical  of  the  Negroes,  against  whom 
they  are  intensely  prejudiced  and  to  whom  they  have  de 
nied  the  rights  and  privileges  of  men,  are  worthless  in 
seeking  the  truth. 

In  making  some  of  the  psychological  measurements  the 
experiments  have  been  very  interesting.  One  man  found 
in  a  white  school  a  Negro  who  showed  more  mental  capac- 
Measurements  ity  than  any  other  member  of  the  institu- 
usedt  tion.  To  explain  this  away  in  keeping  with 

his  theory  that  the  Negro  is  inferior,  he  contended  that  the 
Negro  far  off  in  the  North  among  the  white  people  by  him 
self  was  better  selected  than  the  whites.  In  another  case, 
in  which  the  purpose  of  the  experiment  was  to  prove  that  the 


The  Negro  and  Social  Justice  341 

Negro  was  inferior  both  to  the  Indian  and  white  man,  it 
was  discovered  that  the  Negro  stood  between  the  Indian 
and  the  white  man.  Adhering  to  the  contention  that  the 
Negro  was  still  inferior  even  to  the  Indian,  the  biased 
writer  attributed  the  Negro's  superior  mental  capacity  to 
his  closer  contact  with  the  white  man. 

Until  the  students  of  the  white  race  give  the  same  atten 
tion  to  the  study  of  Africa  which  they  have  given  to  the 
study  of  the  history  of  Europe  and  Asia,  they  will  be  un 
prepared  to  reach  any  conclusions  as  to  the  Tlie 
sort  of  civilization  which  the  Negro  race  has  necessity  for 
produced  and  its  relative  value.  The  fact 
is  that  the  white  man  is  still  ignorant  as  to  what  has  taken 
place  in  Africa.  His  knowledge  is  confined  largely  to  the 
countries  on  the  border  and  the  reports  of  sporadic  explora 
tions  into  the  interior.  Because  the  whites  of  modern 
times  succeeded  in  finding  in  Africa  slaves  for  exploita 
tion  at  the  time  when  the  country  was  torn  to  pieces  by 
wars  of  migrating  hordes,  they  have  concluded  that  these 
weak  captives  in  war,  whom  they  enslaved  and  debased, 
must  be  taken  as  a  sample  of  what  the  Negro  is  capable  of. 
Yet  if  the  Negroes  of  this  country  are  to  serve  as  an  in 
dication  of  the  capabilities  of  the  race,  it  is  both  unscientific 
and  unjust  to  expect  the  Negroes  to  pass  through  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  slavery  and  in  three  genera 
tions  achieve  as  much  as  the  whites  have  during  many 
centuries.  If  they  could,  instead  of  thereby  showing  that 
they  are  equal  to  the  whites,  they  would  demonstrate  their 
superiority. 

To  disabuse  the  public  mind  of  this  slander  proceeding 
from  ill-designing  investigators,  C.  G.  Woodson  organized 
the  Association  for  the  Study  of  Negro  Life  and  History 
in  Chicago  in  1915,  hoping  to  save  and  pub-       The  study  of 
lish  the  records  of  the  Negro,  that  the  race       the  ***&<>' 
may  not  become  a  negligible  factor  in  the  thought  of  the 


342  The  Negro  In  Our  History 

world.  The  work  of  this  Association  is  to  collect  socio 
logical  and  historical  data,  to  publish  books  on  Negro  life 
and  history,  to  promote  studies  in  this  field  through  schools 
and  clubs  with  a  view  to  bringing  about  harmony  be 
tween  the  races  by  interpreting  the  one  to  the  other.  The 
supporters  of  the  movement  have  been  well  known  philan 
thropists  like  Moorefield  Storey,  Julius  Rosenwald  and 
John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  writers  like  Roland  G.  Usher, 
John  M.  Mecklin,  Justice  W.  R.  Riddell,  Jerome  Dowd, 
J.  Franklin  Jameson,  and  Charles  H.  Wesley,  and  pub 
licists  like  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  Talcott  Williams,  and 
Oswald  Garrison  Villard.  For  several  years  the  Associa 
tion  has  published  works  bearing  on  all  phases  of  the  Negro 
and  also  The  Journal  of  Negro  History,  a  quarterly  scien 
tific  magazine  which  now  circulates  throughout  the  civilized 
world  as  a  valuable  help  to  students  and  investigators. 

A  new  note  in  the  progress  of  the  Negro  has  been 
sounded  in  the  appeals  of  the  churches  and  the  civic 
organizations  in  behalf  of  a  square  deal  for  the  Negro, 
as  the  murder  of  Negroes  has  led  to  the  murder  of  white 
men  and  the  whites,2  therefore,  call  for  a  halt  all  along 
the  line.  Citizens  of  both  races  have  been  appointed  by 
mayors,  governors  and  the  like  to  effect  an  agreement  by 
which  both  races  may  live  together  for  the  greatest  good 
of  the  greatest  number.  An  effort  also  has  been  made 
to  bridle  the  radical  press  which,  during  the  last  two  gen 
erations,  by  playing  up  in  bright  headlines  the  crimes  of 
Negroes  and  suppressing  the  similar  crimes  of  whites,  has 
inflamed  the  public  mind  against  the  Negroes  as  a  natu 
rally  criminal  class.  A  new  day  is  dawning. 

2  See  Lincoln's  speech  on  lynching  in  the  Appendix. 


APPENDIX 


Speaking  of  the  effect  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  then  Secretary  of  State,  said: 

I  said  that  this  confounding  of  the  ideas  of  servitude  and  labor 
was  one  of  the  bad  effects  of  slavery;  but  he  (Calhoun)  thought  it 
attended  with  many  excellent  consequences.  It  did  not  apply  to  all 
kinds  of  labor — not,  for  example,  to  farming.  He,  himself,  had 
often  held  the  plow;  so  had  his  father.  Manufacturing  and  me 
chanical  labor  were  not  degrading.  It  was  only  manual  labor — the 
proper  work  of  slaves.  No  white  person  could  descend  to  do  that. 
And  it  was  the  best  guarantee  to  equality  among  the  whites.  It 
produced  an  unvarying  level  among  them.  It  not  only  did  not  excite, 
but  did  not  even  admit  of  inequalities,  by  which  one  white  man 
could  domineer  over  another. 

I  told  Calhoun  I  could  not  see  things  in  the  same  light.  It  is,  in 
truth,  all  perverted  sentiment — mistaking  labor  for  slavery,  and 
dominion  for  freedom.  The  discussion  of  this  Missouri  question  haa 
betrayed  the  secret  of  their  souls.  In  the  abstract  they  admit  that 
slavery  is  an  evil,  they  disclaim  all  participation  in  the  introduction 
of  it,  and  cast  it  all  upon  the  shoulders  of  our  old  Grandam  Britain. 
But  when  probed  to  the  quick  upon  it,  they  show  at  the  bottom  of 
their  souls  pride  and  vainglory  in  their  condition  of  masterdom. 
They  fancy  themselves  more  generous  and  noble-hearted  than  the 
plain  freemen  who  labor  for  subsistence.  They  look  down  upon  the 
simplicity  of  a  Yankee's  manners,  because  he  has  not  habits  of  over 
bearing  like  theirs  and  cannot  treat  negroes  like  dogs.  It  is  among 
the  evils  of  slavery  that  it  taints  the  very  sources  of  moral  principles. 
It  establishes  false  estimates  of  virtue  and  vice;  for  what  can  be 
more  false  and  heartless  than  this  doctrine  which  makes  the  first 
and  holiest  rights  of  humanity  to  depend  upon  the  color  of  the  skin  ? 
It  perverts  human  reason,  and  reduces  men  endowed  with  logical 
powers  to  maintain  that  slavery  is  sanctioned  by  the  Christian  re 
ligion,  that  slaves  are  happy  and  contented  in  their  condition,  that 
between  master  and  slave  there  are  ties  of  mutual  attachment  and 
affection,  that  the  virtues  of  the  master  are  refined  and  exalted  by 
the  degradation  of  the  slave;  while  at  the  same  time  they  vent  execra 
tions  upon  the  slave-trade,  curse  Britain  for  having  given  them 
slaves  burn  at  the  stake  negroes  convicted  of  crimes  for  the  terror  of 
the  example,  and  writhe  in  agonies  of  fear  at  the  very  mention  of 
human  rights  as  applicable  to  men  of  color.  The  impression  pro 
duced  upon  my  mind  by  the  progress  of  this  discussion  is,  that 
the  bargain  between  freedom  and  slavery  contained  m  the  Consti- 

343 


344  Appendix 

tution  of  the  United  States  is  morally  and  politically  vicious,  in 
consistent  with  the  principles  upon  which  alone  our  Revolution  can 
be  justified;  cruel  and  oppressive,  by  riveting  the  chains  of  slavery, 
by  pledging  the  faith  of  freedom  to  maintain  and  perpetuate  the 
tyranny  of  the  master;  and  grossly  unequal  and  impolitic  by  admit 
ting  that  slaves  are  at  once  enemies  to  be  kept  in  subjection, 
property  to  be  secured  or  restored  to  their  owners,  and  persons  not  to 
be  represented  themselves,  but  for  whom  their  masters  are  privileged 
with  nearly  a  double  share  of  representation.  The  consequence  has 
been  that  this  slave  representation  has  governed  the  Union.  Ben 
jamin  portioned  above  his  brethren  has  ravened  as  a  wolf.  In  the 
morning  he  has  devoured  the  prey,  and  at  night  he  has  divided  the 
spoil.  It  would  be  no  difficult  matter  to  prove,  by  reviewing  the 
history  of  the  Union  under  this  Constitution,  that  almost  everything 
which  has  contributed  to  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  nation  has 
been  accomplished  in  despite  of  them  or  forced  upon  them,  and  that 
everything  unpropitious  and  dishonorable,  including  the  blunders  and 
follies  of  their  adversaries,  may  be  traced  to  them.  I  have  favored 
this  Missouri  Compromise,  believing  it  to  be  all  that  could  be 
effected  under  the  present  Constitution  and  from  extreme  unwilling 
ness  to  put  the  Union  at  hazard.  But  perhaps  it  would  have  been 
a  wiser  as  well  as  a  bolder  course  to  have  persisted  in  the  restriction 
upon  Missouri,  till  it  should  have  terminated  in  a  convention  of  the 
States  to  amend  and  revise  the  Constitution.  This  would  have 
produced  a  new  Union  of  thirteen  or  fourteen  States  unpolluted 
with  slavery,  with  a  great  and  glorious  object  to  effect,  namely,  that 
of  rallying  to  their  standard  the  other  States  by  the  universal 
emancipation  of  their  slaves.  If  the  Union  must  be  dissolved,  slavery 
is  precisely  the  question  upon  which  it  ought  to  break.  For  the 
present,  however,  this  contest  is  laid  asleep. — Stedman  and  Hutchin- 
Bon,  American  Literature  (N.  Y.,  1888),  IV,  213-233,  passim. 

On  these  restrictions  in  Missouri  John  Sergeant,  Pennsyl 
vania  member  of  Congress  and  appointed  commissioner  to 
the  Panama  Congress,  said : 

It  is  time  to  come  to  a  conclusion ;  I  fear  I  have  already  trespassed 
too  long.  In  the  effort  I  have  made  to  submit  to  the  committee  my 
views  of  this  question,  it  has  been  impossible  to  escape  entirely  the 
influence  of  the  sensation  that  pervades  this  House.  Yet  I  have 
no  such  apprehensions  as  have  been  expressed.  The  question  is  in 
deed  an  important  one;  but  its  importance  is  derived  altogether 
from  its  connection  with  the  extension,  indefinitely,  of  negro  slavery, 
over  a  land  which  I  trust  Providence  has  destined  for  the  labor  and 
the  support  of  freemen.  I  have  no  fear  that  this  question,  much  as 
it  has  agitated  the  country,  is  to  produce  any  fatal  division,  or  even 
to  generate  a  new  organization  of  parties.  It  is  not  a  question  upon 
which  we  ought  to  indulge  unreasonable  apprehensions,  or  yield  to 
the  counsels  of  fear.  It  concerns  ages  to  come  and  millions  to  be 
born.  It  is,  as  it  were,  a  question  of  a  new  political  creation,  and  it 
is  for  us,  under  Heaven,  to  say  what  shall  be  its  condition.  If  we 


Appendix  345 

impose  the  restriction,  it  will,  I  hope,  be  finally  imposed.     But,  if 
hereafter    it   should    be   found   right   to   remove   it,    and   the    State 
consent,  we  can  remove  it.     Admit  the  State,  without  the  restriction, 
the  power   is  gone   forever,   and   with   it  are   forever   gone  all  the 
efforts  that  have  been  made  by  the  non-slaveholding  States,  to  repress 
and  limit  the  sphere  of  slavery,  and  enlarge  and  extend  the  blessings 
of  freedom.     With   it,   perhaps,   is  gone  forever  the  power  of  pre 
venting  the  traffic  in  slaves,  that  inhuman  and  detestable  traffic,  so 
long  a  disgrace  to  Christendom.    In  future,  and  no  very  distant  times, 
convenience,  and  profit,   and  necessity,   may   be  found  as  available 
pleas  as  they  formerly  were,  and  for  the  luxury  of  slaves,  we  shall 
again  involve  ourselves  in  the  sin  of  the  trade.    We  must  not  presume 
too  much  upon  the  strength  of  our  resolutions.     Let  every  man,  who 
has  been  accustomed  to  the   indulgence,  ask  himself  if  it  is  not  a 
luxury — a  tempting  luxury,  which  solicits  him  strongly  and  at  every 
moment.     The  prompt  obedience,  the  ready  attention,  the  submissive 
and  humble,  but  eager  effort  to  anticipate  command — how  flattering 
to  our  pride,  how  soothing  to  our  indolence!     To  the  members  from 
the  south  I  appeal,  to  know  whether  they  will  suffer  any  temporary 
inconvenience,    or   any   speculative   advantage   to   expose   us  to   the 
danger.    To  those  of  the  north,  no  appeal  can  be  necessary.    To  both, 
I  can  most  sincerely  say,  that  as  I  know   my  own  views  on  this 
subject  to  be  free  from  any  unworthy  motive,  so  will  I  believe  that 
they  likewise  have  no  object  but  the  common  good  of  our  common 
country;    and    that   nothing   would    have   given   me   more   heartfelt 
satisfaction  than  that  the  present  proposition  should  have  originated 
in  the  same  quarter  to  which  we  are  said  to  be  indebted  for  the 
ordinance  of  1787.     Then,  indeed,  would  Virginia  have  appeared  in 
even  more  than  her  wonted  splendor,  and  spreading  out  the  scroll  of 
her  services,  would  have  beheld  none  of  them  with  greater  pleasure, 
than  that  cries  which  began,  by  pleading  the  cause  of  humanity  in 
remonstrances  against  the  slave  trade,  while  she  was  yet  a  colony, 
and  embracing  her  own  act  of  abolition,  and  the  ordinance  of  1787, 
terminated  in  the  restriction  of  Missouri.     Consider,  what  a  founda 
tion  our  predecessors  have  laid!     And  behold,  with  the  blessing  of 
Providence,  how  the  work  has  prospered!     What  is  there,  in  ancient 
or  in  modern  times,  that  can   be  compared  with  the  growth   and 
prosperity  of  the   States   formed  out   of   the  Northwest   Territory? 
When  Europeans  reproach  us  with  our  negro  slavery,  when  they  con 
trast  our  republican  boast  and  pretensions  with  the  existence  of  this 
condition  among  us,  we  have  our  answer  ready — it  is  to  you  we  owe 
this  evil — you  planted  it  here,  and  it  has  taken  such  root  in  the  soil 
we  have  not  the  power  to  eradicate  it.     Then,  turning  to  the  west, 
and  directing  their  attention  to  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  we  can 
proudly   tell   them,   these  are  the  offspring  of   our   policy  and  our 
laws,  these  are  the  free  productions  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.      But,    if,    beyond    this    smiling    region,    they    should   descry 
another  dark  spot  upon  the  face  of  the  new  creation — another  scene 
of  negro  slavery,  established  by  ourselves,  and  spreading  continually 
towards  the  further  ocean,  what  shall  we  say  then?     No,  sir,  let  us 
follow  up  the  work  our  ancestors  have  begun.     Let  us  give  to  the 
world  a  new  pledge  of  our  sincerity.     Let  the  standard  of  freedom 


346  Appendix 

be  planted  in  Missouri,  by  the  hands  of  the  constitution,  and  let  its 
banner  wave  over  the  heads  of  none  but  freedom — men  retaining  the 
image  impressed  upon  them  by  their  Creator,  and  dependent  upon 
none  but  God  and  the  laws.  Then,  as  our  republican  States  extend, 
republican  principles  will  go  hand  in  hand  with  republican  practice — 
the  love  of  liberty  with  the  sense  of  justice.  Then,  sir,  the  dawn, 
beaming  from  the  constitution,  whicli  now  illuminates  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois,  will  spread  with  increasing  brightness  to  the  further 
west;  until  in  its  brilliant  luster,  the  dark  spot,  which  now  rests 
upon  our  country,  shall  be  forever  hid  from  sight.  Industry,  arts, 
commerce,  knowledge,  will  flourish  with  plenty  and  contentment  for 
ages  to  come,  and  the  loud  chorus  of  universal  freedom,  re-echo  from 
the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic,  the  great  truths  of  the  declaration  of 
independence.  Then,  too,  our  brethren  of  the  south,  if  they  sincerely 
wish  it,  may  scatter  their  emancipated  slaves  through  this  boundless 
region,  and  our  country,  at  length,  be  happily  freed  forever  from 
the  foul  stain  and  curse  of  slavery.  And  if  (may  it  be  far,  very  far 
distant !  )  intestine  commotion — civil  dissension — division,  should 
happen — we  shall  not  leave  our  posterity  exposed  to  the  combined 
horrors  of  a  Civil  and  a  servile  war.  If  any  man  still  hesitate,  in 
fluenced  by  some  temporary  motive  of  convenience,  or  ease,  or  profit, 
I  charge  him  to  think  what  our  fathers  have  suffered  for  us,  and  then 
to  ask  his  heart,  if  he  can  be  faithless  to  the  obligation  he  owes  to 
posterity! — Moore,  American  Eloquence  (N.  Y.,  1864),  II,  531-532. 

Calhoun,  the  champion  of  the  slaveholding  interests  and 
a  fearless  defender  of  the  justice  of  slavery,  thus  com 
mented  on  abolition  in  1837  : 

As  widely  as  this  incendiary  spirit  has  spread,  it  has  not  yet  in 
fected  this  body,  or  the  great  mass  of  the  intelligent  and  business 
portion  of  the  North ;  but  unless  it  be  speedily  stopped,  it  will  spread 
and  work  upwards  till  it  brings  the  two  great  sections  of  the  Union 
into  deadly  conflict.  This  is  not  a  new  impression  with  me.  Several 
years  since,  in  a  discussion  with  one  of  the  Senators  from  Massachu 
setts  ( Mr.  Webster ) ,  before  this  fell  spirit  had  showed  itself,  I  then 
predicted  that  the  doctrine  of  the  proclamation  and  the  Force  Bill, — 
that  this  Government  had  a  right,  in  the  last  resort,  to  determine 
the  extent  of  its  own  powers,  and  enforce  its  decision  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet,  which  was  so  warmly  maintained  by  that  Senator, 
would  at  no  distant  day  arouse  the  dormant  spirit  of  abolitionism.  I 
told  him  that  the  doctrine  was  tantamount  to  the  assumption  of 
unlimited  power  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  and  that  such  would 
be  the  impression  on  the  public  mind  in  a  large  portion  of  the  Union. 
The  consequences  would  be  inevitable.  A  large  portion  of  the  North 
ern  States  believed  slavery  to  be  a  sin,  and  would  consider  it  as  an 
obligation  of  conscience  to  abolish  it  if  they  should  feel  themselves  in 
any  degree  responsible  for  its  continuance, — and  that  this  doctrine 
would  necessarily  lead  to  the  belief  of  such  responsibility.  .  .  . 

They  who  imagine  that  the  spirit  now  abroad  in  the  North  will 
die  away  of  itself  without  a  shock  or  convulsion,  have  formed  a 


Appendix  347 

very  inadequate  conception  of  its  real  character;  it  will  continue  to 
rise  and  spread,  unless  prompt  and  efficient  measures  to  stay  its 
progress  be  adopted.  Already  it  has  taken  possession  of  the  pulpit, 
of  the  schools,  and,  to  a  considerable  extent,  of  the  press;  those  great 
instruments  by  which  the  mind  of  the  rising  generation  will  be 
formed. 

However  sound  the  great  body  of  the  nonslaveholding  States  are 
at  present,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  they  will  be  succeeded  by 
those  who  will  li_.ve  been  taught  to  hate  the  people  and  institutions 
of  nearly  one-half  of  this  Union,  with  a  hatred  more  deadly  than  one 
hostile  nation  ever  entertained  toward  another.  It  is  easy  to  see  the 
end.  By  the  necessary  course  of  events,  if  left  to  themselves,  we  must 
become,  finally,  two  people.  It  is  impossible  under  the  deadly  hatred 
which  must  spring  up  between  the  two  great  sections,  if  the  present 
causes  are  permitted  to  operate  unchecked,  that  we  should  continue 
under  the  same  political  system.  The  conflicting  elements  would 
burst  the  Union  asunder,  powerful  as  are  the  links  which  hold  it 
together.  Abolition  and  the  Union  cannot  co-exist.  As  the  friend  of 
the  Union,  I  openly  proclaim  it, — and  the  sooner  it  is  known  the 
better.  The  former  may  now  be  controlled,  but  in  a  short  time  it 
will  be  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  arrest  the  course  of  events. 
We  of  the  South  will  not,  cannot,  surrender  our  institutions.  To 
maintain  the  existing  relations  between  the  two  races,  inhabiting 
that  section  of  the  Union,  is  indispensable  to  the  peace  and  happiness 
of  both.  It  cannot  be  subverted  without  drenching  the  country  in 
blood,  and  extirpating  one  or  the  other  of  the  races.  Be  it  good  or 
bad,  it  has  grown  up  with  our  society  and  institutions,  and  is  so 
interwoven  with  them,  that  to  destroy  it  would  be  to  destroy  us  as  a 
people.  But  let  me  not  be  understood  as  admitting,  even  by  implica 
tion,  that  the  existing  relations  between  the  two  races  in  the  slave- 
holding  States  is  an  evil: — far  otherwise;  I  hold  it  to  be  a  good, 
as  it  has  thus  far  proved  itself  to  be  to  both,  and  will  continue  to 
prove  so  if  not  disturbed  by  the  fell  spirit  of  abolition.  .  .  . 

I  feel  myself  called  upon  to  speak  freely  upon  the  subject  where 
the  honor  and  interests  of  those  I  represent  are  involved.  I  hold 
then,  that  there  never  has  yet  existed  a  wealthy  and  civilized  society 
in  which  one  portion  of  the  community  did  not,  in  point  of  fact,  live 
on  the  labor  of  the  other.  Broad  and  general  as  is  this  assertion,  it 
is  fully  borne  out  by  history.  ...  I  fearlessly  assert  that  the  existing 
relations  between  the  two  races  in  the  South,  against  which  these 
blind  fanatics  are  waging  war,  forms  the  most  solid  and  durable 
foundation  on  which  to  rear  free  and  stable  political  institutions. 
It  is  useless  to  disguise  the  fact.  There  is  and  always  has  been  in 
an  advanced  stage  of  wealth  and  civilization,  a  conflict  between 
labor  and  capital.  The  condition  of  society  in  the  South  exempts  us 
from  the  disorders  and  dangers  resulting  from  this  conflict;  and 
which  explains  why  it  is  that  the  political  condition  of  the  slave- 
holding  States  has  been  so  much  more  stable  and  quiet  than  that 
of  the  North.  The  advantages  of  the  former,  in  this  respect,  will 
become  more  and  more  manifest  if  left  undisturbed  by  interference 
from  without,  as  the  country  advances  in  wealth  and  numbers.  We 
have,  in  fact,  but  just  entered  that  condition  of  society  where  the 


348  Appendix 

strength  and  durability  of  our  political  institutions  are  to  be  tested ; 
and  I  venture  nothing  in  predicting  that  the  experience  of  the  next 
generation  will  fully  test  how  vastly  more  favorable  our  condition 
of  society  is  to  that  of  other  sections  for  free  and  stable  institutions, 
provided  we  are  not  disturbed  by  the  interference  of  others,  or  shall 
have  sufficient  intelligence  and  spirit  to  resist  promptly  and  suc 
cessfully  such  interference.  It  rests  with  ourselves  to  meet  and 
repel  them.  I  look  not  for  aid  to  this  Government  or  to  the  other 
States;  not  but  there  are  kind  feelings  toward  us  on  the  part  of  the 
great  body  of  the  non-slaveholding  States;  but  as  kind  as  their 
feelings  may  be,  we  may  rest  assured  that  no  political  party  in  those 
States  will  risk  their  ascendance  for  our  safety.  If  we  do  not 
defend  ourselves  none  will  defend  us;  if  we  yield  we  will  be  more 
and  more  pressed  as  we  recede;  and  if  we  submit  we  will  be  tram 
pled  under  foot.  Be  assured  that  emancipation  itself  would  not 
satisfy  these  fanatics; — that  gained,  the  next  step  would  be  to  raise 
the  negroes  to  a  social  and  political  equality  with  the  whites;  and 
that  being  effected,  we  would  soon  find  the  present  condition  of  the 
two  races  reversed.  .  .  .  Calhoun,  Speeches  (N.  Y.,  1856),  II,  628- 
633  passim. 

The  beginnings  of  the  Liberator  are  well  set  forth  in  this 
extract : 

To   the   Public. 

In  the  month  of  August  I  issued  proposals  for  publishing  the 
Liberator  in  Washington  city;  but  the  enterprise,  though  hailed  in 
different  sections  of  the  country,  was  palsied  by  public  indifference. 
Since  that  time,  the  removal  of  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipa 
tion  to  the  Seat  of  Government  has  rendered  less  imperious  the 
establishment  of  a  similar  periodical  in  that  quarter. 

During  my  recent  tour  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  the  minds  of 
the  people  by  a  series  of  discourses  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  every 
place  that  I  visited  gave  fresh  evidence  of  the  fact,  that  a  greater 
revolution  in  public  sentiment  was  to  be  effected  in  the  free  States — 
and  particularly  in  New  England — than  in  the  South.  I  found  con 
tempt  more  bitter,  opposition  more  active,  detraction  more  relentless, 
prejudice  more  stubborn,  and  apathy  more  frozen,  than  among  slave 
owners  themselves.  Of  course,  there  were  individual  exceptions  to 
the  contrary.  This  state  of  things  afflicted,  but  did  not  dishearten 
me.  I  determined,  at  every  hazard,  to  lift  up  the  standard  of 
emancipation  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation,  within  sight  of  Bunker  Hill 
and  in  the  birthplace  of  liberty.  That  standard  is  now  unfurled; 
and  long  may  it  float,  unhurt  by  the  spoliations  of  time  or  the 
missiles  of  a  desperate  foe — yea,  till  every  secret  abettor  tremble — 
let  their  northern  apologist  tremble — let  all  the  enemies  of  the 
persecuted  blacks  tremble.  .  .  . 

I  shall  not  array  myself  as  the  political  partisan  of  any  man.  In 
defending  the  great  cause  of  human  rights,  I  wish  to  derive  the 
assistance  of  all  religions  and  of  all  parties. 


Appendix  349 

Assenting  to  the  "self-evident  truth"  maintained  in  the  American 
Declaration  of  Independence,  "that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights — among 
which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  I  shall 
strenuously  contend  for  the  immediate  enfranchisement  of  our  slave 
population.  In  Park  Street  Church,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1829,  in 
an  address  on  slavery,  I  unreflectingly  assented  to  the  popular  but 
pernicious  doctrine  of  gradual  abolition.  I  seize  this  opportunity 
to  make  a  full  and  unequivocal  recantation,  and  thus  publicly  to  ask 
pardon  of  my  God,  of  my  country,  and  of  my  brethren,  the  poor 
slaves,  for  having  uttered  a  sentiment  so  full  of  timidity,  injustice, 
and  absurdity.  A  similar  recantation,  from  my  pen,  was  published 
in  the  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  at  Baltimore,  in  September, 
1829.  My  conscience  is  now  satisfied. 

I  am  aware  that  many  object  to  the  severity  of  my  language;  but 
Is  there  not  cause  for  severity?  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth,  and  as 
uncompromising  as  justice.  On  this  subject,  I  do  not  wish  to  think, 
or  speak,  or  write,  with  moderation.  No!  no!  Tell  a  man  whose 
house  is  on  fire  to  give  a  moderate  alarm;  tell  him  to  moderately 
rescue  his  wife  from  the  hands  of  the  ravisher;  tell  the  mother  to 
gradually  extricate  her  babe  from  the  fire  into  which  it  has  fallen, — 
but  urge  me  not  to  use  moderation  in  a  cause  like  the  present.  I  am 
in  earnest — I  will  not  equivocate — I  will  not  excuse — I  will  not 
retreat  a  single  inch — and  I  will  be  heard.  The  apathy  of  the  people 
is  enough  to  make  every  statue  leap  from  its  pedestal,  and  to  hasten 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

It  is  pretended  that  I  am  retarding  the  cause  of  emancipation  by 
the  coarseness  of  my  invective  and  the  precipitancy  of  my  measures. 
The  charge  is  not  true.  On  this  question  my  influence,— humble  as  it 
is, — is  felt  at  this  moment  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  shall  be  felt 
in  coming  years — not  perniciously,  but  beneficially — not  as  a  curse, 
but  as  a  blessing;  and  posterity  will  bear  testimony  that  I  was 
right.  I  desire  to  thank  God,  that  he  enables  me  to  disregard  "the 
fear  of  man  which  bringeth  a  snare,"  and  to  speak  his  truth  in  its 
simplicity  and  power.  And  here  I  close  with  this  fresh  dedication : 

Oppression!  I  have  seen  thee  face  to  face, 

And  met  thy  cruel  eye  and  cloudy  brow; 

But  thy  soul-withering  glance  I  fear  not  now — 

For  dread  to  prouder  feelings  doth  give  place 

Of  deep  abhorrence!      Scorning  the  disgrace 

Of  slavish  knees  that  at  thy  footstool  bow, 

I  also  kneel — but  with  far  other  vow 

Do  hail  thee  and  thy  herd  of  hirelings  base:  — 

I  swear,  while  life-blood  warms  my  throbbing  veins, 

Still  to  oppose  and  thwart,  with  heart  and  hand, 

Thy   brutalizing   sway — till   Afric's   chains 

Are  burst,  and  Freedom  rules  the  rescued  land, — 

Trampling  Oppression  and  iron  rod: 

Such  is  the  vow  I  take — so  help  me  God! 

— W.  L.  Garrison,  Works  (Boston,  1905),  pp.  70-73. 


350  Appendix 

The  constitution  of  the  American  Antislavery  Society 
was : 

Whereas,  the  Most  High  God  "hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations 
of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,"  and  hath  commanded 
them  to  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves ;  and  whereas,  our  National 
Existence  is  based  on  this  principle,  as  recognized  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  "that  all  mankind  are  created  equal,  and  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  among 
which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness";  and  whereas, 
after  the  lapse  of  nearly  sixty  years,  since  the  faith  and  honor  of  the 
American  people  were  pledged  to  this  avowal,  before  Almighty  God 
and  the  World,  nearly  one-sixth  part  of  the  nation  are  held  in  bond 
age  by  their  fellow-citizens;  and  whereas,  Slavery  is  contrary  to  the 
principles  of  natural  justice,  of  our  republican  form  of  government, 
and  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  is  destructive  of  the  prosperity 
of  the  country,  while  it  is  endangering  the  peace,  union,  and  liberties 
of  the  States;  and  whereas,  we  believe  it  the  duty  and  interest  of  the 
masters  immediately  to  emancipate  their  slaves,  and  that  no  scheme 
of  expatriation,  either  voluntary  or  by  compulsion,  can  remove  this 
great  and  increasing  evil;  and  whereas,  we  believe  that  it  is  prac 
ticable,  by  appeals  to  the  consciences,  hearts,  and  interests  of  the 
people,  to  awaken  a  public  sentiment  throughout  the  nation  that  will 
be  opposed  to  the  continuance  of  Slavery  in  any  part  of  the  Republic, 
and  by  effecting  the  speedy  abolition  of  Slavery,  prevent  a  general 
convulsion;  and  whereas,  we  believe  we  owe  it  to  the  oppressed,  to 
our  fellow-citizens  who  hold  slaves,  to  our  whole  country,  to  posterity, 
and  to  God,  to  do  all  that  is  lawfully  in  our  power  to  bring  about 
the  extinction  of  Slavery,  we  do  hereby  agree,  with  a  prayerful  re 
liance  on  the  Divine  aid,  to  form  ourselves  into  a  society,  to  be 
governed  by  the  following  Constitution: 

Article  I. — This  Society  shall  be  called  The  American  Antislavery 
Society. 

Article  II. — The  objects  of  this  Society  are  the  entire  abolition  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States.  While  it  admits  that  each  State,  in 
which  Slavery  exists,  has,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
the  exclusive  right  to  legislate  in  regard  to  its  abolition  in  said 
State,  it  shall  aim  to  convince  all  our  fellow-citizens,  by  arguments 
addressed  to  their  understandings  and  consciences,  that  Slavehold- 
ing  is  a  heinous  crime  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  that  the  duty,  safety, 
and  best  interests  of  all  concerned,  require  its  immediate  abandon 
ment,  without  expatriation.  The  Society  will  also  endeavor,  in  a 
constitutional  way,  to  influence  Congress  to  put  an  end  to  the 
domestic  Slave  trade,  and  to  abolish  Slavery  in  all  those  portions  of 
our  common  country  which  come  under  its  control,  especially  in  the 
District  of  Columbia, — and  likewise  to  prevent  the  extension  of  it  to 
any  State  that  may  be  hereafter  admitted  to  the  Union. 

Article  III. — This  Society  shall  aim  to  elevate  the  character  and 
condition  of  the  people  of  color,  by  encouraging  their  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  improvement,  and  by  removing  public  prejudice, 
that  thus  they  may,  according  to  their  intellectual  moral  worth,  share 


Appendix  351 

an  equality  with  the  whites,  of  civil  and  religious  privileges ;  but  this 
Society  will  never  in  any  way  countenance  the  oppressed  in  vindi 
cating  their  rights  by  resorting  to  physical  force. 

Article  IV. — Any  person  who  consents  to  the  principles  of  this 
Constitution,  who  contributes  to  the  funds  of  this  Society,  and  is 
not  a  Slaveholder,  may  be  a  member  of  this  Society,  and  shall  be 
entitled  to  vote  at  the  meetings. 

The  text  is  in  a  pamphlet,  entitled  Platform  of  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society  and  Its  Auxiliaries  (New  York,  1855),  pp.  3,  4. 
The  fullest  account  of  the  convention  is  in  William  Lloyd  Garrison: 
Story  of  His  Life  Told  by  His  Children,  I,  pp.  392-415,  where  is  also 
a  copy  of  the  Declaration.  The  Declaration  is  also  in  the  pamphlet 
above  cited.  For  Whittier's  account,  see  Atlantic  Monthly,  Vol. 
XXXIII,  pp.  166-172.  (February,  1874.) 

This  appeal  of  a  Southern  Matron  for  patience  is  a  case 
in  evidence  of  the  thinking  element  in  the  South: 

Shut  your  eyes  no  longer,  my  countrymen — the  Union  is  threatened ; 
and  all  the  blessings  it  confers,  and  which  our  fathers  suffered  and 
died  to  attain,  must  perish  with  it.  Scorn  not  the  feeble  voice  of  a 
woman,  when  she  calls  on  you  to  awake  to  your  danger,  ere  it  be 
forever  too  late.  We  are  told  that  the  citizens  of  the  North  would 
arouse  our  slaves  to  exert  their  physical  force  against  us— but  we 
cannot,  we  will  not  believe  the  foul,  shocking,  unnatural  tale.  What ! 
have  the  daughters  of  the  South  inflicted  such  injuries  on  their 
Northern  brethren,  as  to  render  them  objects  of  their  deadly,  ex 
terminating  hate?  Have  helpless  age,  smiling  infancy,  virgin  purity 
no  claims  on  the  generous,  the  highminded  and  the  brave?  Would 
they  introduce  the  serpents  of  fear  and  withering  anxiety  into  the 
Edens  of  domestic  bliss;  bathe  our  peaceful  hearths  with  blood,  and 
force  us  to  abhor  those  ties  which  now  unite  us  as  one  people,  and 
which  we  so  lately  taught  our  sons  to  regard  as  our  pride  ?  We  can 
not  believe  it.  We  cannot  be  so  unjust  to  the  enlightened  and  humane 
citizens  of  the  Northern  States,  as  to  suppose  for  a  moment  that 
they  approve  of  the  course  pursued  by  those  reckless  agitators  who 
seek  to  inflict  such  cruel  calamities  on  the  South.  The  poor  slave 
himself  merits  not  at  their  hands  the  mischief  and  woe  which  his 
mistaken  advocates  would  heap  on  his  devoted  head;  for  even  they 
cannot  imagine  that  an  exertion  of  physical  force  on  their  part  could 
result  in  aught  but  his  destruction.  No— the  Northern  people  are  too 
well  acquainted  with  historical  facts,  to  condemn  u§  for  evils  which 
we  deprecated  as  warmly  as  themselves,  but  which  were  ruthlessly 
imposed  on  us  by  the  power  of  Great  Britain. 

So  far  from  condemning,  they  must  sympathize  with  us;  for  they 
well  know  that  slavery  was  forced  upon  us,  and  that  as  early  as  17bl 
the  Southern  colonies  earnestly  sought  to  avert  it  by  passing  acts 
imposing  duties  on  slaves,  and  even  prohibiting  their  importation.  In 
spite  of  sectional  prejudices  (alas,  too  often  fostered  for  the  worst 
ends  by  the  unprincipled  and  ambitious)— in  spite  of  conflicting  in- 


352  Appendix 

tcrests,  the  people  of  the  North  are  our  brethren.  Together  our 
fathers  shared  many  a  peril.  Side  by  side,  they  fought  and  bled  in 
defense  of  their  common  country.  Their  united  wisdom  was  exerted 
to  form  our  glorious  Constitution,  and  these  republican  institutions, 
which  so  justly  are  our  boast,  and  the  safeguard  of  our  liberties. 
Would  the  sons  overthrow  the  noble  fabric  their  fathers  assisted  to 
rear,  even  now,  when  towering  aloft  in  its  majesty  and  beauty,  it 
attracts  the  admiration  of  the  world? — We  cannot  believe  they  are 
prepared  for  so  suicidal  an  act.  The  States  are  all  more  or  less 
dependent  on  each  other.  Let  one  portion  be  weakened  and  depressed, 
the  whole  must  ultimately  suffer.  Oh !  that  a  spirit  of  compromise, 
forbearance,  and  brotherly  love  could  be  infused  into  our  coun 
cils,  and  animate  the  bosoms  of  our  public  men.  Then  the  voice 
of  contention  would  be  hushed  into  silence.  The  insidious  treach 
ery  of  the  incendiary  would  meet  the  contempt  it  merits,  and 
factious  demagogues  would  shrink  abashed  beneath  the  deep, 
stern  voice  of  a  nation's  censure.  Then  the  daughters  of  Amer 
ica  could  look  joyfully  on  their  sons  and  indulge  the  proud 
hope  that  they  and  their  children  would  live  and  die  the  free 
and  happy  citizens  of  the  great,  nourishing  and  United  States  of 
America. 

Deluded  emancipators  of  the  North,  we  now  appeal  to  you!  We 
deprecate  slavery  as  much  as  you.  WTe  as  ardently  desire  the  lib 
erty  of  the  whole  human  race;  but  what  can  we  do?  The  slow  hand 
of  time  must  overcome  these  difficulties  now  insurmountable.  An 
evil,  the  growth  of  ages,  cannot  be  remedied  in  a  day.  Our  virtuous 
and  enlightened  men  will  doubtless  effect  much  by  cautious  exertion, 
if  their  efforts  are  not  checked  by  your  rash  attempts  to  dictate  on  a 
subject  on  which  it  is  impossible  that  you  can  form  a  correct  judg 
ment.  Forbear  your  inflammatory  addresses.  They  but  rivet  the 
fetters  of  the  slaves,  and  render  them  ten  thousand  times  more  gall 
ing.  You  sacrifice  his  happiness,  as  well  as  that  of  his  owner,  for, 
by  rendering  him  an  object  of  suspicion  and  alarm  you  deprive  him 
of  the  regard,  confidence,  and,  I  may  add,  with  the  utmost  truth, 
the  affection  of  his  master.  You  render  a  being  now  light-hearted 
and  joyous,  moody,  wretched — yes,  hopelessly  wretched.  You  wreak 
on  the  innocent  and  helpless,  who,  had  they  the  will,  possess  not  the 
power  to  bid  the  slave  be  free  from  all  his  imagined  wrongs.  You 
agonize  gentle  bosoms,  which  glow  with  Christian  charity  towards 
the  whole  human  race,  of  whatever  color  they  may  be.  Fearful 
forebodings  mingle  with  all  a  deep,  imperishable  love,  as  the  matron 
bends  over  the  infant  that  smiles  in  her  face,  and  with  more  shud 
dering  horror,  she  trembles  as  she  gazes  on  the  daughters,  whose 
youthful  beauty,  goodness  and  grace  shed  the  sunshine  of  joy  and 
hope  over  the  winter  of  life.  I  appeal  to  you  as  Christians,  as 
patriots,  as  men,  generous,  highminded  men,  to  forbear.  By  all 
you  hold  sacred — by  your  own  feelings  or  the  wives  of  your  bosom 
and  the  children  of  your  love,  pause  and  reflect  on  the  mischief 
and  woe  you  seek  to  inflict  on  both  the  white  and  colored  population 
of  the  Southern  States.  .  .  . 

"A  Southern  Nation,"  The  Colonizationist    (Boston,   1834),  75-77. 


Appendix  353 

The  following  speech  of  John  Quincy  Adams  shows  his 
later  attitude  on  slavery  and  the  like : 

The  inconsistency  of  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery  with  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  seen  and  lamented 
by  all  the  Southern  patriots  of  the  Revolution;  by  no  one  with 
deeper  and  more  unalterable  conviction  than  by  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  himself.  No  insincerity  or  hypocrisy  can  fairly  be  laid 
to  their  charge.  Never  from  their  lips  was  heard  one  syllable  of 
attempt  to  justify  the  institution  of  slavery.  They  universally  con 
sidered  it  as  a  reproach  fastened  upon  them  by  the  unnatural  step 
mother  country;  and  they  saw  that,  before  the  principles  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  slavery,  in  common  with  every  other 
mode  of  oppression,  was  destined  sooner  or  later  to  be  banished 
from  the  earth.  Such  was  the  undoubting  conviction  of  Jefferson 
to  his  dying  day.  In  the  memoir  of  his  life,  written  at  the  age  of 
seventy-seven,  he  gave  to  his  countrymen  the  solemn  and  emphatic 
warning  that  the  day  was  not  distant  when  they  must  hear  and 
adopt  the  general  emancipation  of  their  slaves.  "Nothing  is  more 
certainly  written,"  said  he,  "in  the  book  of  fate,  than  that  these 
people  are  to  be  free.  My  countrymen!  It  is  written  in  a  better 
volume  than  the  book  of  fate;  it  is  written  in  the  laws  of  Nature 
and  of  Nature's  God." 

We  are  told,  indeed,  by  the  learned  doctors  of  the  nullification 
school,  that  color  operates  as  a  forfeiture  of  the  rights  of  human 
nature;  that  a  dark  skin  turns  a  man  into  a  chattel;  that  crispy 
hair  transforms  a  human  being  into  a  four-footed  beast.  The  master- 
priest  informs  you  that  slavery  is  consecrated  and  sanctified  by  the 
Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament;  that  Ham  waa 
the  father  of  Canaan,  and  all  his  posterity  were  doomed,  by  his  own 
father,  to  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  the  descendants 
of  Shem  and  Japhet;  that  the  native  Americans  of  African  descent 
are  the  children  of  Ham,  with  the  curse  of  Noah  still  fastened  upon 
them;  and  the  native  Americans  of  European  descent  are  children  of 
Japhet,  pure  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  born  to  command,  and  to  live  by 
the  sweat  of  another's  brow.  The  master-philosopher  teaches  you 
that  slavery  is  no  curse,  but  a  blessing!  that  Providence — Providence! 
— has  so  ordered  it  that  this  country  should  be  inhabited  by  two 
races  of  men, — one  born  to  wield  the  scourge,  and  the  other  to  bear 
the  record  of  its  stripes  upon  his  back;  one  to  earn,  through  a  toil 
some  life,  the  other's  bread,  and  to  feed  him  on  a  bed  of  roses;  that 
slavery  is  the  guardian  and  promoter  of  wisdom  and  virtue;  that 
the  slave,  by  laboring  for  another's  enjoyment,  learns  disinterested 
ness  and  humility;  that  the  master,  nurtured,  clothed,  and  sheltered, 
by  another's  toils,  learns  to  be  generous  and  grateful  to  the  slave, 
and  sometimes  to  feel  for  him  as  a  father  for  his  child;  that, 
released  from  the  necessity  of  supplying  his  own  wants,  he  acquires 
opportunity  of  leisure  to  improve  his  mind,  to  purify  his  heart,  to 
cultivate  his  taste ;  that  he  has  time  on  his  hands  to  plunge  into  the 
depths  of  philosophy,  and  to  soar  to  the  clear  empyrean  or  seraphic 
morality.  The  master-statesman — ay,  the  statesman  in  the  land 


354  Appendix 

of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in  the  halls  of  national  legisla 
tion,  with  the  muse  of  history  recording  his  words  as  they  drop 
from  his  lips,  with  the  colossal  figure  of  American  Liberty  leaning 
on  a  column  entwined  with  the  emblem  of  eternity  over  his  head, 
with  the  forms  of  Washington  and  Lafayette  speaking  to  him  from 
the  canvas — turns  to  the  image  of  the  father  of  his  country,  and, 
forgetting  that  the  last  act  of  his  life  was  to  emancipate  his  slaves, 
to  bolster  up  the  cause  of  slavery,  says,  "That  man  was  a  slave 
holder." 

My  countrymen!  these  are  the  tenets  of  the  modern  nullification 
school.  Can  you  wonder  that  they  shrink  from  the  light  of  free 
discussion — that  they  skulk  from  the  grasp  of  freedom  and  of  truth? 
Is  there  among  you  one  who  hears  me,  solicitous  above  all  things  for 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  so  truly  dear  to  us — of  that  Union  pro 
claimed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence — of  that  Union  never  to 
be  divided  by  any  act  whatever — and  who  dreads  that  the  discussion 
of  the  merits  of  slavery  will  endanger  the  continuance  of  the  Union? 
Let  him  discard  his  terrors,  and  be  assured  that  they  are  no  other 
than  the  phantom  fears  of  nullification;  that,  while  doctrines 
like  these  are  taught  in  her  schools  of  philosophy,  preached  in  her 
pulpits,  and  avowed  in  her  legislative  councils,  the  free,  unrestrained 
discussion  of  the  rights  and  wrongs  of  slavery,  far  from  endangering 
the  Union  of  these  States,  is  the  only  condition  upon  which  that 
Union  can  be  preserved  and  perpetuated.  What!  are  you  to  be  told, 
with  one  breath,  that  the  transcendent  glory  of  this  day  consists  in 
the  proclamation  that  all  lawful  government  is  founded  on  the 
inalienable  rights  of  man,  and,  with  the  next  breath,  that  you 
must  not  whisper  this  truth  to  the  winds,  lest  they  should  taint 
the  atmosphere  with  freedom,  and  kindle  the  flame  of  insurrection? 
Are  you  to  bless  the  earth  beneath  your  feet  because  she  spurna 
the  footsteps  of  a  slave,  and  then  to  choke  the  utterance  of  your 
voice  lest  the  sound  of  liberty  should  be  reechoed  from  the  palmetto 
groves, .mingled  with  the  discordant  notes  of  disunion?  No!  no! 
Freedom  of  speech  is  the  only  safety-valve  which,  under  the  high 
pressure  of  slavery,  can  preserve  your  political  boiler  from  a  fearful 
and  fatal  explosion.  Let  it  be  admitted  that  slavery  is  an  institu 
tion  of  internal  police,  exclusively  subject  to  the  separate  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  States  where  it  is  cherished  as  a  blessing,  or  tolerated  aa 
an  evil  as  yet  irremediable.  But  let  that  slavery  which  intrenches 
itself  within  the  walls  of  her  own  impregnable  fortress  not  sally 
forth  to  conquest  over  the  domain  of  freedom.  Intrude  not  beyond 
the  hallowed  bounds  of  oppression;  but,  if  you  have  by  solemn 
compact  doomed  your  ears  to  hear  the  distant  clanking  of  the  chain, 
let  not  the  fetters  of  the  slave  be  forged  afresh  upon  your  own 
eoil ;  far  less  permit  them  to  be  riveted  upon  your  own  feet.  Quench 
not  the  spirit  of  freedom.  Let  it  go  forth,  not  in  panoply  of  fleshly 
wisdom,  but  with  the  promise  of  peace,  and  the  voice  of  per 
suasion,  clad  in  the  whole  armor  of  truth,  conquering  and  to  con 
quer. 

Josiah  Quiney,  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  John  Quwcy  Adams  (Boston, 
1858),  272-275. 


Appendix  355 

In  the  following  speech  Joshua  R.  Giddings  attacked  the 
policy  of  yielding  ground  to  slavery : 

It  is  well  known,  Mr.  Chairman,  that,  since  the  formation  of  this 
confederacy,  there  has  been  a  supposed  conflict  between  the  southern 
and  the  northern  States.  I  do  not  say  that  the  conflict  is  real;  I 
only  say  that,  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  both  North  and  South,  and 
in  this  hall,  such  a  conflict  exists.  This  has  given  rise  to  a  differ 
ence  of  policy  in  our  national  councils.  I  refer  to  the  tariff  in 
particular,  as  being  a  favorite  measure  of  the  North,  while  free  trade 
is  advocated  more  generally  by  the  South.  I  refer  also  to  our 
harbor  improvements,  and  the  improvement  of  our  river  navigation, 
as  another  measure  in  which  the  Northwest  and  West  have  felt 
great  interest,  and  to  which  the  South  have  been  constantly  op 
posed.  But  so  equally  balanced  has  been  the  political  power,  be 
tween  these  opposing  interests,  that  for  five  years  past  our  lake 
commerce  has  been  entirely  abandoned;  and  such  were  the  defects 
of  the  tariff,  that  for  many  years  our  revenues  were  unequal  to 
the  support  of  government. 

By  the  fixed  order  of  nature's  law,  our  population  at  the  North 
has  increased  so  much  faster  than  it  has  in  the  slave  States,  that 
under  the  late  census  the  North  and  West  hold  the  balance  of  po 
litical  power;  and  at  the  present  session  we  have  passed  through 
this  body  a  bill  for  the  protection  of  our  lake  and  river  commerce, 
which  awaits  the  action  of  the  Senate  to  become  a  law.  But  let 
us  admit  Texas,  and  we  shall  place  the  balance  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  Texas.  They,  with  the  southern  States,  will  control  the 
policy  and  the  destiny  of  this  nation ;  our  tariff  will  then  be  held  at 
the  will  of  the  Texan  advocates  of  free  trade. 

Are  our  friends  of  the  North  prepared  to  deliver  over  this  policy 
to  the  people  of  Texas?  Are  the  liberty-loving  democrats  of  Penn 
sylvania  ready  to  give  up  the  tariff?  To  strike  off  all  protection 
from  the  articles  of  iron  and  coal  and  other  productions  of  that 
State,  in  order  to  purchase  a  slave-market  for  their  neighbors,  who, 
in  the  words  of  Thomas  Jefferson  Randolph,  "breed  men  for  the 
market  like  oxen  for  the  shambles?" 

I  do  not  argue  to  the  policy  of  protecting  our  American  manu 
factures.  I  only  say,  that  at  this  time,  New  England  and  the  free 
States  generally  are  in  favor  of  it,  while  the  slave  States  are  equally 
opposed  to  it.  And  I  ask  are  the  mechanics  and  manufacturers  of  the 
North  prepared  to  abandon  their  employments,  in  order  that  slave- 
markets  may  be  established  in  Texas,  and  a  brisk  traffic  in  bodies, 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  our  southern  population  may  be  maintained  ? 
Are  the  farmers  of  the  West,  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  pre 
pared  to  give  up  the  sale  of  their  beef,  pork,  and  flour,  in  order 
to  increase  the  profits  of  those  who  raise  children  for  sale,  and 
deal  in  the  bodies  of  women?  Are  the  free  States  prepared  to 
suspend  their  harbor  and  river  improvements  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  this  slave-trade  with  Texas,  and  to  perpetuate  slavery 
therein  ? 

But,  if  Texas  be  admitted  to  the  Union,  it  is  to  be  a  slave- 
holding  State,  out  of  which  several  States  are  hereafter  to  be  ad- 


356  Appendix 

mitted,  with  the  advantages  over  our  free  States  of  holding  a 
representation  on  this  floor,  and  a  vote  in  the  election  of  president 
and  vice-president,  and  in  the  administration  of  the  federal  govern 
ment,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  slaves  they  shall  hold  in 
bondage.  In  other  words,  their  influence  on  all  these  subjects  is  to 
be  proportioned  to  their  contempt  of  liberty.  The  Texan,  who 
holds  five  slaves,  is  to  wield  an  influence  over  our  national  interests 
equal  to  four  of  our  northern  freemen.  If  each  holds  fifty  slaves, 
his  influence  will  be  equal  to  that  of  thirty-one  of  the  independent 
electors  of  the  free  States.  I  ask  the  learned  gentleman  from 
Indiana  (Mr.  Owen)  if  he  really  estimates  the  political  worth  of  his 
constituents  so  low  as  to  require  thirty-one  of  them  to  form  an 
aggregate  of  political  influence  equal  to  that  of  the  piratical  owner 
of  fift_'  "human  chattels"  in  Texas?  Or  does  he  estimate  his  own 
political  worth  at  one-fourth  part  of  that  which  he  attaches  to  the 
holder  of  five  slaves  in  Texas?  I  wish  gentlemen  here  would  speak 
out,  and  let  us  know  the  real  estimate  which  they  put  upon  the 
moral  and  political  worth  of  northern  men?  Would  to  God  I  were 
able  to  speak  to  every  man  of  every  party,  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  Line.  I  would  demand  of  them  as  men,  as  freemen,  to 
come  forward,  and  let  the  country  understand  whether  any  one  of 
them  is  willing  thus  to  degrade  himself;  or  whether  any  one  of 
them  is  willing  to  be  thus  degraded  by  his  representatives  in  this 
hall.  This  proposition,  come  from  whom  it  may,  from  persons  high 
in  office,  or  from  those  wishing  to  be  high  in  office,  is  insulting  to 
northern  feeling  and  northern  honor.  Sir,  why  not  propose  at  once 
that  our  people  shall  surrender  themselves  as  slaves  to  the  Texan 
planters?  Why  not  advise  the  people  of  our  free  States  at  once 
to  leave  their  homes,  to  go  to  Texas,  and  become  the  voluntary 
"hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water"  to  those  fugitive  criminals, 
who,  within  the  last  fifteen  years,  were  driven  from  the  United 
States  to  avoid  punishment  for  their  crimes?  .  .  . 

Joshua  R.  Giddings,  Speeches  in  Congress  (Boston,  1853),  104-106. 

As  the  following  extract  from  his  speech  shows,  Sumner 
believed  in  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law.  He  said : 

The  way  is  now  prepared  to  consider  the  nature  of  Equality,  as 
Becured  by  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence,  which  followed  the  French  Encyclopedia  and  the  po 
litical  writings  of  Rousseau,  announces  among  self-evident  truths, 
"that  all  men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  unalienable  rights;  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  The  Constitution  of  Massa 
chusetts  repeats  the  same  truth  in  a  different  form,  saying,  in  its 
first  article:  "All  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  have  certain 
natural  essential,  and  unalienable  rights,  among  which  may  be 
reckoned  the  right  of  enjoying  and  defending  their  lives  and  lib 
erties."  Another  article  explains  what  is  meant  by  Equality,  saying: 
"No  man,  nor  corporation  or  association  of  men,  have  any  other  title 


Appendix  357 

to  obtain  advantages,  or  particular  and  exclusive  privileges,  distinct 
from  those  of  the  community,  that  what  arises  from  the  consider 
ation  of  services  rendered  to  the  public ;  and  this  title  being  in  nature 
neither  hereditary,  nor  transmissible  to  children,  or  descendants,  or 
relations  by  blood,  the  idea  of  a  man  being  born  a  magistrate,  law 
giver,  or  judge  is  absurd  and  unnatural."  This  language,  in  its 
natural  signification,  condemns  every  form  of  inequality  in  civil  and 
political  institutions. 

These  declarations,  though  in  point  of  time  before  the  ampler 
declarations  of  France,  may  be  construed  in  the  light  of  the  latter. 
Evidently  they  seek  to  declare  the  same  principle.  They  are  decla 
rations  of  Rights;  and  the  language  employed,  though  general  in 
character,  is  obviously  limited  to  those  matters  within  the  design 
of  a  declaration  of  Rights.  And  permit  me  to  say,  it  is  a  childish 
Bophism  to  adduce  any  physical  or  mental  inequality  in  argument 
against  Equality  of  Rights. 

Obviously,  men  are  not  born  equal  in  physical  strength  or  in 
mental  capacity,  in  beauty  of  form  or  health  of  body.  Diversity 
or  inequality  in  these  respects  is  the  law  of  creation.  From 
this  difference  springs  divine  harmony.  But  this  inequality  is 
in  no  particular  inconsistent  with  complete  civil  and  political 
equality. 

The  equality  declared  by  our  fathers  in  1776,  and  made  the 
fundamental  law  of  Massachusetts  in  1780,  was  Equality  before  the 
Law.  Its  object  was  to  efface  all  political  or  civil  distinctions,  and 
to  abolish  all  institutions  founded  upon  birth.  "All  men  are  created 
equal,"  says  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  "All  men  are  born 
free  and  equal,"  says  the  Massachusetts  Bill  of  Rights.  These  are 
not  vain  words.  Within  the  sphere  of  their  influence,  no  person 
can  be  created,  no  person  can  be  born  with  civil  or  political  privi 
leges  not  enjoyed  equally  by  all  his  fellow-citizens;  nor  can  any 
institution  be  established,  recognizing  distinction  of  birth.  Here  is 
the  Great  Charter  of  every  human  being  drawing  vital  breath  upon 
this  soil,  whatever  may  be  his  condition,  and  whoever  may  be  his 
parents.  He  may  be  poor,  weak,  humble,  or  black; — he  may  be  of 
Caucasian,  Jewish,  Indian,  or  Ethiopian  race, — he  may  be  of  French, 
German,  English,  or  Irish  extraction;  but  before  the  Constitution 
of  Massachusetts  all  these  distinctions  disappear.  He  is  not  poor, 
weak,  humble,  or  black;  nor  is  he  Caucasian,  Jew,  Indian,  or 
Ethiopian;  nor  is  he  French,  German,  English,  or  Irish;  he  is  a  MAN, 
the  equal  of  all  his  fellow-men.  He  is  one  of  the  children  of  the 
State,  which,  like  an  impartial  parent,  regards  all  its  offsprings  with 
an  equal  care.  To  some  it  may  justly  allot  higher  duties,  according 
to  higher  capacities;  but  it  welcomes  all  to  its  equal  hospitable 
board.  The  State,  imitating  the  divine  justice,  is  no  respecter  of 
persons. 

Here  nobility  cannot  exist,  because  it  is  a  privilege  from  birth.  But 
the  same  anathema  which  smites  and  banishes  nobility  must  also 
smite  and  banish  every  form  of  discrimination  founded  on  birth, — 

"Quamvis  ille  niger,  quamvis  tu  candidus  esses." 

Charles  Sumner,  Works   (Boston,   1875),  II,  340-342. 


358  Appendix 

Voicing  a  strong  protest  against  the  theory  that  the 
rightfulness  of  slavery  must  not  be  publicly  discussed  or 
questioned,  Joshua  R.  Giddings  said : 

Sir,  certain  Senators  in  the  other  end  of  the  capitol  have  for 
months  been  endeavoring  to  convince  the  people  of  the  necessity  of 
passing  the  "omnibus  bill,"  as  it  is  called.  No  arguments  could  be 
raised  in  favor  of  that  measure,  for  it  was  not  founded  on  reason. 
One  consideration  alone  was  pressed  upon  the  public  mind.  The 
cry  was  raised  that  "the  Union  was  in  danger!"  The  newspapers  here 
responded,  "the  Union  is  in  danger!"  The  country  press  repeated 
the  alarm.  The  cry  was  caught  up  and  echoed  by  every  timid, 
faltering  poltroon  of  the  North.  Petitions  to  "save  the  Union" 
were  circulated.  Public  meetings  were  held  in  our  commercial  cities 
where  Texas  scrip  was  mostly  influential,  and  resolutions  were 
adopted  "to  save  the  Union."  The  supplications  were  not  that  we 
"may  legislate  in  righteousness,"  deal  out  justice  and  mercy  to 
those  who  are  oppressed  and  degraded  by  our  laws.  These  were 
regarded  as  objects  of  trifling  importance,  when  compared  with  the 
pending  danger  that  Texas  would  dissolve  the  Union.  Indeed,  they 
are  never  mentioned  by  our  chaplain. 

Sir,  I  am  nauseated,  sickened  at  this  moral  and  political  effem 
inacy;  this  downright  cowardice.  It  is  unworthy  of  American  states 
men.  Our  constituents  sent  us  here  to  maintain  and  defend  their 
rights;  not  to  surrender  them;  not  to  make  ourselves  and  our  people 
tributary  to  Texas.  In  electing  us,  they  had  no  expectation  that 
we  would  turn  upon  them  and  violently  thrust  our  hands  into  their 
pockets  and  take  therefrom  ten  millions  of  dollars,  and  hand  it  over 
to  the  slave-holders  of  Texas,  for  territory  which  belongs  to  us,  and 
to  which  Texas  never  had  any  title  whatever. 

Sir,  gentlemen  here  may  say  what  they  please;  the  people  have  no 
fears  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  They  understand  this  kind  of 
gasconade.  The  cry  of  "dissolution"  has  been  the  dernier  resort  of 
southern  men  for  fifty  years,  whenever  they  desired  to  frighten 
doughfaces  into  a  compliance  with  their  measures.  It  may  alarm 
gentlemen  here;  but  I  do  not  think  you  can  find  in  northern  Ohio  an 
equal  number  of  nervous  old  women  or  of  love-sick  girls,  who  could 
be  moved  by  it. 

Again,  it  is  said  that  we  must  stop  this  agitation  in  relation  to 
slavery!  The  people  see  us  here  passing  laws  to  enslave  our  fellow 
men;  to  sell  women  in  open  market;  to  create  a  traffic  in  the  bodies 
of  children.  They  know  this  to  be  opposed  to  the  self-evident  truth 
that  "all  men  are  created  equal,"  "that  governments  are  constituted 
to  sustain  that  equality  of  rights";  and  they  converse  on  the  sub 
ject,  examine  the  reasons  on  which  such  traffic  is  based,  and  vote 
for  men  who  will  oppose  such  barbarous  practices.  This  is  called 
agitation;  and  gentlemen  here  talk  of  suppressing  it  by  passing 
such  laws  as  that  on  your  table.  This  is  the  manner  in  which  we 
are  to  stop  the  progress  of  truth;  to  seal  the  lips  of  philanthropists; 
and  to  silence  the  voice  of  humanity.  Yes,  Sir,  it  is  gravely  proposed 


Appendix  359 

that  we  should  set  bounds  to  the  human  intellect,  and  to  limit 
political  investigations  by  statute  laws. 

Sir,  the  great  founder  of  our  holy  religion,  when  he  proclaimed  the 
Heaven-born  truths  of  his  Gospel,  was  denounced  as  an  "agitator." 
He  was  arrested,  condemned,  and  executed  for  asserting  truths  which 
the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  were  too  stupid  to  comprehend.  It  was 
done  to  stop  agitation;  but  truth,  emanating  from  "the  Holy  One," 
has  extended,  spread,  and  progressed,  and  will  "go  on  conquering  and 
to  conquer,"  in  spite  of  all  the  political  Scribes  and  Pharisees  in 
Congress,  and  the  quaking  and  trembling  of  dough-faces  here  and 
elsewhere. 

This  progress  in  morals  and  in  political  intelligence  is  in  strict 
accordance  with  the  law  of  our  being,  and  cannot  be  prevented.  The 
idea  of  setting  bounds  to  the  human  intellect,  of  circumscribing  it 
by  statute  law,  is  preposterous.  Why  not  limit  the  arts  and 
sciences  by  conservative  legislation,  as  well  as  moral  and  political 
progress?  Why  not  follow  the  example  of  those  who  attempted  to 
stop  the  agitation  of  Galileo,  when  he  proclaimed  the  truth  of  our 
solar  system,  and  the  laws  by  which  the  planets  are  retained  in 
their  orbits?  He  caused  great  agitation,  and  was  excommunicated 
for  his  infidelity,  in  thus  daring  to  proclaim  truths  which  the 
conservatives  of  that  age  were  too  ignorant  to  comprehend.  It 
required  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  for  the  stupid  clergy  of  that 
day  to  understand  the  truths  for  which  he  had  been  expelled  from 
their  Christian  fellowship.  How  long  it  will  require  certain  theo 
logical  professors  of  the  present  day  to  comprehend  the  "self-evident 
truths"  of  man's  equality,  is  not  yet  determined.  Or  how  long  it  will 
require  our  political  doctors  to  comprehend  the  very  obvious  fact 
that  an  educated  and  reflecting  people  will  think  and  act  for 
themselves,  is  yet  to  be  ascertained. 

But,  if  we  are  to  have  conservative  legislation,  let  us  tear  down 
the  telegraphic  wires,  break  up  our  galvanic  batteries,  and  imprison 
Morse,  and  stop  all  agitation  upon  the  subject  of  your  "magnetic  rail 
roads  of  thought."  Lay  up  your  steamboats,  place  fetters  upon  your 
locomotives,  convert  your  railroads  into  cultivated  fields,  and  erase 
the  name  of  Fulton  from  our  history.  Go  down  to  yonder  Institute, 
drive  Page  from  his  laboratory,  break  in  pieces  his  galvanic  en 
gines,  and  unchain  the  imprisoned  lightning  which  is  there  pent  up ; 
then  pass  an  act  of  Congress  prohibiting  all  further  agitation  on 
these  subjects,  and  thus  carry  out  your  conservative  principles,  of 
which  some  men  are  continually  boasting.  .  .  . 

Joshua  R.  Giddings,  Speeches  in  Congress  (Boston,  1853),  409-411. 

Giving  great  offense  to  Jefferson  Davis  and  other  South 
ern  friends,  William  H.  Seward  spoke  thus  for  The  Higher 
Law  than  the  Constitution: 

There  is  another  aspect  of  the  principle  of  compromise  which 
deserves  consideration.  It  assumes  that  slavery,  if  not  the  only 
institution  in  a  slave  State,  is  at  least  a  ruling  institution,  and 


360  Appendix 

that  this  characteristic  is  recognized  by  the  Constitution.  But 
slavery  is  only  one  of  many  institutions  there.  Freedom  is  equally 
an  institution  there.  Slavery  is  only  a  temporary,  accidental,  partial, 
and  incongruous  one.  Freedom,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  perpetual, 
organic,  universal  one,  in  harmony  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  slaveholder  himself  stands  under  the  protection 
of  the  latter,  in  common  with  all  the  free  citizens  of  that  state.  But 
it  is,  moreover,  an  indispensable  institution.  You  may  separate 
slavery  from  South  Carolina,  and  the  state  will  still  remain;  but  if 
you  subvert  freedom  there,  the  state  will  cease  to  exist.  But  the 
principle  of  this  compromise  gives  complete  ascendency  in  the  slave 
states,  and  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  to  the  sub 
ordinate,  accidental,  and  incongruous  institution,  over  its  paramount 
antagonist.  To  reduce  this  claim  of  slavery  to  an  absurdity,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  add  that  there  are  only  two  states  in  which  slaves 
are  a  majority,  and  not  one  in  which  the  slaveholders  are  not  a  very 
disproportionate  minority. 

But  there  is  yet  another  aspect  in  which  this  principle  must  be 
examined.  It  regards  the  domain  only  as  a  possession,  to  be  enjoyed 
either  in  common  or  by  partition  by  the  citizens  of  the  old  states. 
It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  national  domain  is  ours.  It  is  true  it 
was  acquired  by  the  valor  and  with  the  wealth  of  the  whole  nation. 
But  we  hold,  nevertheless,  no  arbitrary  power  over  it.  We  hold 
no  arbitrary  authority  over  anything,  whether  acquired  lawfully 
or  seized  by  usurpation.  The  Constitution  regulates  our  steward 
ship;  the  Constitution  devotes  the  domain  to  union,  to  justice,  to 
defense,  to  welfare,  and  to  liberty. 

But  there  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution,  which  regulates 
our  authority  over  the  domain,  and  devotes  it  to  the  same  noble 
purposes.  The  territory  is  a  part,  no  inconsiderable  part,  of  the 
common  heritage  of  mankind  bestowed  upon  them  by  the  Creator  of 
the  universe.  We  are  his  stewards,  and  must  so  discharge  our  trust 
as  to  secure  in  the  highest  attainable  degree  their  happiness.  How 
momentous  that  trust  is  we  may  learn  from  the  instructions  of  the 
founder  of  modern  philosophy: 

"No  man,"  says  Bacon,  "can  by  care-taking,  as  the  Scripture  saith, 
add  a  cubit  to  his  stature  in  this  little  model  of  a  man's  body; 
but,  in  the  great  frame  of  kingdoms  and  commonwealths,  it  is  in  the 
power  of  princes  or  estates  to  add  amplitude  and  greatness  to  their 
kingdoms.  For,  by  introducing  such  ordinances,  constitutions,  and 
customs,  as  are  wise,  they  may  sow  greatness  to  their  posterity  and 
successors.  But  these  things  are  commonly  not  observed,  but  left 
to  take  their  chance." 

This  is  a  state,  and  we  are  deliberating  for  it,  just  as  our 
fathers  deliberated  in  establishing  the  institutions  we  enjoy.  What 
ever  superiority  there  is  in  our  condition  and  hopes  over  those  of 
any  other  "kingdom"  or  "estate"  is  due  to  the  fortunate  circum 
stance  that  our  ancestors  did  not  leave  things  to  "take  their 
chance,"  but  that  they  "added  amplitude  and  greatness"  to  our 
common-wealth  "by  introducing  such  ordinances,  constitutions,  and 
customs,  as  were  wise."  We  in  our  turn  have  succeeded  to  the 
same  responsibilities,  and  we  cannot  approach  the  duty  before  us 


Appendix  361 


wisely  or  justly,  except  we  raise  ourselves  to  the  great  consideration 
of  how  we  can  most  certainly  "sow  greatness  to  our  posterity  and 
successors." 

And  now  the  simple,  bold,  and  even  awful,  question  which  presents 
Itself  to  us  is  this:  Shall  we,  who  are  founding  institutions,  social 
and  political,  for  countless  millions;  shall  we,  who  know  by  experi 
ence  the  wise  and  the  just,  and  are  free  to  choose  them,  and  to  reject 
the  erroneous  and  unjust;  shall  we  establish  human  bondage,  or 
permit  it  by  our  sufferance  to  be  established?  Sir,  our  forefathers 
would  not  have  hesitated  an  hour.  They  found  slavery  existing 
here,  and  they  left  it  only  because  they  could  not  remove  it.  There 
is  not  only  no  free  State  which  would  now  establish  it,  but  there  is 
no  slave  State,  which,  if  it  had  had  the  free  alternative  as  we 
now  have,  would  have  founded  slavery.  Indeed,  our  revolutionary 
predecessors  had  precisely  the  same  question  before  them  in  estab 
lishing  an  organic  law  under  which  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  have  since  come  into  the  Union, 
and  they  solemnly  repudiated  and  excluded  slavery  from  those  states 
forever.  I  confess  that  the  most  alarming  evidence  of  our  degeneracy 
which  has  yet  been  given  is  found  in  the  fact  that  we  even  debate 
such  a  question.  .  .  . 

The  senator  proposes  to  expel  me.  I  am  ready  to  meet  that  trial, 
too;  and  if  I  shall  be  expelled,  I  shall  not  be  the  first  man  subjected 
to  punishment  for  maintaining  that  there  is  a  power  higher  than 
human  law,  and  that  power  delights  in  justice;  that  rulers,  whether 
despots  or  elected  rulers  of  a  free  people,  are  bound  to  administer 
justice  for  the  benefit  of  society. 

William  H.  Seward,  Works  (N.  Y.,  1853),  I,  pp.  74-129. 

The  following  speech  from  Lincoln  exposed  the  fallacy  of 
the  so-called  reasonableness  of  slavery: 

Equality  in  society  alike  beats  inequality,  whether  the  latter  be 
of  the  British  aristocratic  sort  or  of  the  domestic  slavery  sort.  We 
know  Southern  men  declare  that  their  slaves  are  better  off  than 
hired  laborers  among  us.  How  little  they  know  whereof  they  speak! 
There  is  no  permanent  class  of  hired  laborers  amongst  us.  Twenty- 
five  years  ago  I  was  a  hired  laborer.  The  hired  laborer  of  yesterday 
labors  on  his  own  account  to-day,  and  will  hire  others  to  labor  for 
him  to-morrow.  Advancement — improvement  in  condition — is  the 
order  of  things  in  a  society  of  equals.  As  labor  is  the  common 
burden  of  our  race,  so  the  effort  of  some  to  shift  their  share  of 
the  burden  onto  the  shoulders  of  others  is  the  great  durable  curse  of 
the  race.  Originally  a  curse  for  transgression  upon  the  whole  race, 
when,  as  by  slavery,  it  is  concentrated  on  a  part  only,  it  becomes 
the  double-refined  curse  of  God  upon  his  creatures. 

Free  labor  has  the  inspiration  of  hope;  pure  slavery  has  no  hope. 
The  power  of  hope  upon  human  exertion  and  happiness  is  wonderful. 
The  slave-master  himself  has  a  conception  of  it,  and  hence  the  system 
of  tasks  among  slaves.  The  slave  whom  you  cannot  drive  with  the 
lash  to  break  seventy-five  pounds  of  hemp  in  a  day,  if  you  will  ask 


362  Appendix 

him  to  break  a  hundred,  and  promise  him  pay  for  all  he  does  over, 
he  will  break  you  a  hundred  and  fifty.  You  have  substituted  hope 
for  the  rod.  And  yet  perhaps  it  does  not  occur  to  you  that  to  the 
extent  of  your  gain  in  the  case,  you  have  given  up  the  slave  system 
and  adopted  the  free  system  of  labor. 

If  A  can  prove,  however,  conclusively,  that  he  may  of  right  enslave 
B,  why  may  not  B  snatch  the  same  argument  and  prove  equally  that 
he  may  enslave  A?  You  say  A  is  white  and  B  is  black.  It  ia 
color,  then;  the  lighter  having  the  right  to  enslave  the  darker? 
Take  care.  By  this  rule  you  are  to  be  slave  to  the  first  man  you 
meet  with  a  fairer  skin  than  your  own.  You  do  not  mean  color 
exactly?  You  mean  the  whites  are  intellectually  the  superiors  of  the 
blacks,  and  therefore  have  the  right  to  enslave  them?  Take  care 
again.  By  this  rule  you  are  to  be  slave  to  the  first  man  you  meet 
with  an  intellect  superior  to  your  own.  But,  you  say,  it  is  a  ques 
tion  of  interest,  and  if  you  make  it  your  interest  you  have  the  right 
to  enslave  another.  Very  well.  And  if  he  can  make  it  his  interest 
he  has  the  right  to  enslave  you. 

The  ant  who  has  toiled  and  dragged  a  crumb  to  his  nest  will 
furiously  defend  the  fruit  of  his  labor  against  whatever  robber 
assails  him.  So  plain  that  the  most  dumb  and  stupid  slave  that  ever 
toiled  for  a  master  does  constantly  know  that  he  is  wronged.  So 
plain  that  no  one,  high  or  low,  ever  does  mistake  it,  except  in  a 
plainly  selfish  way;  for  although  volume  upon  volume  is  written  to 
prove  slavery  a  very  good  thing,  we  never  hear  of  the  man  who  wishes 
to  take  the  good  of  it  by  being  a  slave  himself. 

Most  governments  have  been  based,  practically,  on  the  denial  of 
the  equal  rights  of  men  as  I  have,  in  part,  stated  them;  ours  began 
by  affirming  those  rights.  They  said,  some  men  are  too  ignorant 
and  vicious  to  share  in  government.  Possibly  so,  said  we;  and,  by 
your  system,  you  would  always  keep  them  ignorant  and  vicious.  We 
proposed  to  give  all  a  chance;  and  we  expected  the  weak  to  grow 
stronger,  the  ignorant  wiser,  and  all  better  and  happier  together. 

We  made  the  experiment,  and  the  fruit  is  before  us.  Look  at  it, 
think  of  it.  Look  at  it  in  its  aggregate  grandeur,  of  extent  of  coun 
try,  and  numbers  of  population — of  ship,  and  steamboat,  and 
railroad.  .  .  . 

Thus  we  see  that  the  plain,  unmistakable  spirit  of  that  age  toward 
slavery  was  hostility  to  the  principles  and  toleration  only  by 
necessity. 

But  now  it  is  to  be  transformed  into  a  "sacred  right."  Nebraska 
brings  it  forth,  places  it  on  the  highroad  to  extension  and  perpetuity, 
and  with  a  pat  on  its  back  says  to  it,  "Go,  and  God  speed  you." 
Henceforth  it  is  to  be  the  chief  jewel  of  the  nation — the  very  figure 
head  of  the  ship  of  state.  Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as  man's 
march  to  the  grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the  old  for  the  new  faith. 
Nearly  eighty  years  ago  we  began  by  declaring  that  all  men  are 
created  equal;  but  now  from  that  beginning  we  have  run  down  to 
the  other  declaration,  that  for  some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a 
"sacred  right  of  self-government."  These  principles  cannot  stand 
together.  They  are  as  opposite  as  God  and  Mammon;  and  whoever 
holds  to  the  one  must  despise  the  other.  When  Pettit,  in  connection 


Appendix  363 

with  hia  support  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  called  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  "a  self-evident  lie,"  he  only  did  what  consistency  and 
candor  require  all  other  Nebraska  men  to  do.  Of  the  forty-odd 
Nebraska  senators  who  sat  present  and  heard  him,  no  one  rebuked 
him.  Nor  am  I  apprised  that  any  Nebraska  newspaper,  or  any 
Nebraska  orator,  in  the  whole  nation  has  ever  rebuked  him.  If 
this  had  been  said  among  Marion's  men,  Southerners  though  they 
were,  what  would  have  become  of  the  man  who  said  it?  If  this  had 
been  said  to  the  men  who  captured  Andre,  the  man  who  said  it  would 
probably  have  been  hung  sooner  than  Andre  was.  If  it  had  been  said 
in  old  Independence  Hall  seventy-eight  years  ago,  the  very  door 
keeper  would  have  throttled  the  man  and  thrust  him  into  the  street. 
Let  no  one  be  deceived.  The  spirit  of  seventy-six  and  the  spirit  of 
Nebraska  are  utter  antagonisms;  and  the  former  is  being  rapidly 
displaced  by  the  latter. 

Fellow-countrymen,  Americans,  South  as  well  as  North,  shall  we 
make  no  effort  to  arrest  this?  Already  the  liberal  party  throughout 
the  world  express  the  apprehension  "that  the  one  retrograde  institu 
tion  in  America  is  undermining  the  principles  of  progress,  and 
fatally  violating  the  noblest  political  system  the  world  ever  saw." 
This  is  not  the  taunt  of  enemies,  but  the  warning  of  friends.  Is  it 
quite  safe  to  disregard  it — to  despise  it?  Is  there  no  danger  to 
liberty  itself  in  discarding  the  earliest  practice  and  first  precept  of 
our  ancient  faith?  In  our  greedy  chase  to  make  profit  of  the 
negro,  let  us  beware  lest  we  "cancel  and  tear  in  pieces"  even  the 
white  man's  charter  of  freedom. 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the  dust.  Let  ua 
repurify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it  white  in  the  spirit,  if  not  in 
the  blood,  of  the  Revolution.  Let  us  turn  slavery  from  its  claims 
of  "moral  right"  back  upon  its  existing  legal  rights  and  its  argu 
ments  of  "necessity."  Let  us  return  it  to  the  position  our  fathers 
gave  it,  and  there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us  readopt  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  and  with  it  the  practices  and  policy  which 
harmonize  with  it.  Let  North  and  South, — let  all  Americans — let 
all  lovers  of  liberty  everywhere  join  in  the  great  and  good  work. 
If  we  do  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  saved  the  Union,  but  we  shall 
have  so  saved  it  that  the  succeeding  millions  of  free,  happy  people, 
the  world  over,  shall  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed  to  the  latest  genera 
tions. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  Early  Speeches  (N.  Y.,  1907),  216-264. 

Some  of  the  thoughts  of  The  Irrepressible  Conflict  of 
Freedom  and  Slavery  were  : 

This  African  slave  system  is  one  which,  in  its  origin  and  in  its 
growth,  has  been  altogether  foreign  from  the  habits  of  the  races 
which  colonized  these  states  and  established  civilization  here.  It  was 
introduced  on  this  continent  as  an  engine  of  conquest,  and  for  the 
establishment  of  monarchial  power,  by  the  Portuguese  and  the  Span 
iards,  and  was  rapidly  extended  by  them  all  over  South  America, 
Central  America,  Louisiana,  and  Mexico.  Its  legitimate  fruits  are 


364  Appendix 

seen  in  the  poverty,  imbecility,  and  anarchy  which  now  pervade  all 
Portuguese  and  Spanish  America.  The  free-labor  system  is  of  Ger 
man  extraction,  and  it  was  established  in  our  country  by  emigrants 
from  Sweden,  Holland,  Germany,  Great  Britain,  and  Ireland.  We 
justly  ascribe  to  its  influences  the  strength,  wealth,  greatness,  in 
telligence,  and  freedom,  which  the  whole  American  people  now 
enjoy.  One  of  the  chief  elements  of  the  value  of  human  life  is 
freedom  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  The  slave  system  is  not  only 
intolerable,  unjust,  and  inhuman,  toward  the  laborer,  whom,  only 
because  he  is  a  laborer,  it  loads  down  with  chains  and  converts  into 
merchandise,  but  is  scarcely  less  severe  upon  the  freeman,  to  whom, 
only  because  he  is  a  laborer  from  necessity,  it  denies  facilities  for 
employment,  and  whom  it  expels  from  the  community  because  it  can 
not  enslave  and  convert  into  merchandise  also.  It  is  necessarily  im 
provident  and  ruinous,  because,  as  a  general  truth,  communities  pros 
per  and  flourish,  or  droop  and  decline,  in  just  the  degree  that  they 
practice  or  neglect  to  practice  the  primary  duties  of  justice  and 
humanity.  The  free-labor  system  conforms  to  the  divine  law  of 
equality,  which  is  written  in  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  men,  and 
therefore  is  always  and  everywhere  beneficent. 

The  slave  system  is  one  of  constant  danger,  distrust,  suspicion, 
and  watchfulness.  It  debases  those  whose  toil  alone  can  produce 
wealth  and  resources  for  defense,  to  the  lowest  degree  of  which 
human  nature  is  capable,  to  guard  against  mutiny  and  insurrection, 
and  thus  wastes  energies  which  otherwise  might  be  employed  in 
national  development  and  aggrandizement. 

The  free-labor  system  educates  all  alike,  and  by  opening  all  the 
fields  of  industrial  employment  and  all  the  departments  of  authority, 
to  the  unchecked  and  equal  rivalry  of  all  classes  of  men,  at  once 
secures  universal  contentment,  and  brings  into  the  highest  possible  ac 
tivity  all  the  physical,  moral,  and  social  energies  of  the  whole  state. 
In  states  where  the  slave  system  prevails,  the  masters,  directly  or 
indirectly,  secure  all  the  political  power,  and  constitute  a  ruling 
aristocracy.  In  states  where  the  free-labor  system  prevails,  universal 
suffrage  necessarily  obtains,  and  the  state  inevitably  becomes,  sooner 
or  later,  a  republic  or  democracy.  .  .  . 

Hitherto  the  two  systems  have  existed  in  different  states,  but 
side  by  side  within  the  American  Union.  This  has  happened  be 
cause  the  Union  is  a  confederation  of  states.  But  in  another  aspect 
the  United  States  constitute  only  one  nation.  Increase  of  popula 
tion,  which  is  filling  the  states  out  to  their  very  borders,  together 
with  a  new  and  extended  network  of  railroads  and  other  avenues, 
and  an  internal  commerce  which  daily  becomes  more  intimate,  is 
rapidly  bringing  the  states  into  a  higher  and  more  perfect  social  unity 
or  consolidation.  Thus,  these  antagonistic  systems  are  continually 
coming  into  closer  contact,  and  collision  results. 

Shall  I  tell  you  what  this  collision  means?  They  who  think  that 
it  is  accidental,  unnecessary,  the  work  of  interested  or  fanatical 
agitators,  and  therefore  ephemeral,  mistake  the  case  altogether. 
It  is  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  opposing  and  enduring  forces, 
and  it  means  that  the  United  States  must  and  will,  sooner  or  later, 
become  either  entirely  a  slave-holding  nation  or  entirely  a  free-labor 


Appendix  365 

nation.  Either  the  cotton  or  rice  fields  of  South  Carolina  and  the 
sugar  plantations  of  Louisiana  will  ultimately  be  tilled  by  free  labor, 
and  Charleston  and  New  Orleans,  become  marts  of  legitimate  mer 
chandise  alone,  or  else  the  rye-fields  and  wheat-fields  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  New  York  must  again  be  surrendered  by  their  farmers 
to  slave  culture  and  to  the  production  of  slaves,  and  Boston  and 
New  York  become  once  more  markets  for  trade  in  the  bodies  and 
eouls  of  men.  It  is  the  failure  to  apprehend  this  great  truth  that 
induces  so  many  unsuccessful  attempts  at  final  compromises  between 
the  slave  and  free  states,  and  it  is  the  existence  of  this  great  fact 
that  renders  all  such  pretended  compromises,  when  made,  vain  and 
ephemeral.  .  .  . 

At  last,  the  Republican  party  has  appeared.  It  avows,  now,  aa 
the  Republican  party  of  1800  did,  in  one  word,  its  faith  and  its 
works,  'Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men.'  Even  when  it  first 
entered  the  field,  only  half  organized,  it  struck  a  blow  which  only 
just  failed  to  secure  complete  and  triumphant  victory.  In  this, 
its  second  campaign,  it  has  already  won  advantages  which  render 
that  triumph  now  both  easy  and  certain. 

The  secret  of  its  assured  success  lies  within  that  very  character 
istic  which,  in  the  mouth  of  scoffers,  constitutes  its  great  and  lasting 
imbecility  and  reproach.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a  party  of  one 
idea;  but  that  is  a  noble  one — an  idea  that  fills  and  expands  all 
generous  souls;  the  idea  of  equality— the  equality  of  all  men  before 
human  tribunals  and  human  laws,  as  they  all  are  equal  before  the 
Divine  tribunal  and  Divine  laws. 

I  know,  and  you  know,  that  a  revolution  has  begun.  I  know, 
and  all  the  world  knows,  that  revolutions  never  go  backward. 
Twenty  Senators  and  a  hundred  Representatives  proclaim  boldly  in 
Congress  to-day  sentiments  and  opinions  and  principles  of  freedom 
which  hardly  so  many  men,  even  in  this  free  state,  dared  to  utter  in 
their  own  homes  twenty  years  ago.  While  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  under  the  conduct  of  the  Democratic  party,  has  been 
all  that  time  surrendering  one  plain  and  castle  after  another  to 
slavery,  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been  no  less  steadily 
and  perseveringly  gathering  together  the  forces  with  which  to  recover 
back  again  all  the  fields  and  all  the  castles  which  have  been  lost, 
and  to  confound  and  overthrow,  by  one  decisive  blow,  the  betrayers 
of  the  Constitution  and  freedom  forever. 

William  H.  Seward,  The  Irrepressible  Conflict:  A  Speech  Deliv 
ered  at  Rochester,  Oct.  25,  1858  (no  title  page,  New  York,  1858), 
1-7  passim. 

This  review  of  the  struggle  by  Senator  Benjamin  F. 
Wade,  an  Ohio  antislavery  senator  who  frequently  assailed 
slavery,  shows  how  the  sentiment  in  the  South  had  drifted 
toward  secession : 

There  is  no  principle  held  to-day  by  this  great  Republican  party 
that  has  not  had  the  sanction  of  your  Government  in  every  depart- 


366  Appendix 

ment  for  more  than  seventy  years.  You  have  changed  your  opinions. 
We  stand  where  we  used  to  stand.  That  is  the  only  difference.  .  .  . 
Sir,  we  stand  where  Washington  stood,  where  Jefferson  stood,  where 
Madison  stood,  where  Monroe  stood.  We  stand  where  Adams  and 
Jackson  and  even  Polk  stood.  That  revered  statesman,  Henry  Clay, 
of  blessed  memory  with  his  dying  breath  asserted  the  doctrine  that 
we  hold  to-day.  .  .  .  As  to  compromises,  I  had  supposed  that  we 
were  all  agreed  that  the  day  of  compromises  was  at  an  end.  The 
most  solemn  compromises  we  have  ever  made  have  been  violated 
without  a  whereas.  Since  I  have  had  a  seat  in  this  body,  one  of 
considerable  antiquity,  that  had  stood  for  more  than  thirty  years, 
was  swept  away  from  your  statute  books.  .  .  .  We  nominated  our 
candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President,  and  you  did  the  same 
for  yourselves.  The  issue  was  made  up  and  we  went  to  the  people 
upon  it.  .  .  And  we  beat  you  upon  the  plainest  and  most  palpable 
issue  that  ever  was  presented  to  the  American  people,  and  one  that 
they  understood  the  best.  There  is  no  mistaking  it;  and  now  when 
we  come  to  the  capitol,  I  tell  you  that  our  President  and  our  Vice- 
President  must  be  inaugurated  and  administer  the  government  as  all 
their  predecessors  have  done.  Sir,  it  would  be  humiliating  and  dis 
honorable  to  us  if  we  were  to  listen  to  a  compromise  (only)  by 
which  he  who  has  the  verdict  of  the  people  in  his  pocket  should  make 
his  way  to  the  Presidential  chair.  When  it  comes  to  that  you  have 
no  government.  ...  If  a  State  secedes,  although  we  will  not  make 
war  upon  her,  we  cannot  recognize  her  right  to  be  out  of  the  Union, 
and  she  is  not  out  until  she  gains  the  consent  of  the  Union  itself; 
and  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  nation,  be  he  who  he  may,  will 
find  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  that  it  is  his  sworn 
duty  to  execute  the  law  in  every  part  and  parcel  of  this  Govern 
ment;  that  he  cannot  be  released  from  that  obligation.  .  .  .  There 
fore,  it  will  be  incumbent  on  the  chief  magistrate  to  proceed  to 
collect  the  revenue  of  ships  entering  their  ports  precisely  in  the 
same  way  and  to  the  same  extent  that  he  does  now  in  every  other 
State  of  the  Union.  .  .  .  What  must  she  do?  If  she  is  contented 
to  live  in  this  equivocal  state,  all  would  be  well  perhaps,  but  she 
could  not  live  there.  No  people  in  the  world  could  live  in  that 
condition.  What  will  they  do?  They  must  take  the  initiative  and 
declare  war  upon  the  United  States;  and  the  moment  that  they  levy 
war,  force  must  be  met  by  force;  and  they  must,  therefore,  hew  out 
their  independence  by  violence  and  war.  There  is  no  other  way 
under  the  Constitution,  that  I  know  of  whereby  a  chief  magistrate 
of  any  politics  could  be  released  from  this  duty:  If  this  State, 
though  seceding,  should  declare  war  against  the  United  States,  I 
do  not  suppose  there  is  a  lawyer  in  this  body  but  what  would  say 
that  the  act  of  levying  war  is  treason  against  the  United  States. 
That  is  where  it  results.  We  might  just  as  well  look  the  matter 
right  in  the  face.  .  .  . 

I  say,  sir,  I  stand  by  the  Union  of  these  States.  Washington  and 
his  compatriots  fought  for  that  good,  old  flag.  It  shall  never  be 
hauled  down,  but  shall  be  the  glory  of  the  Government  to  which  I 
belong,  as  long  as  my  life  shall  continue.  ...  It  was  my  protector  in 


Appendix  367 

infancy,  and  the  pride  and  glory  of  my  riper  years;  and  although 
it  may  be  assailed  by  traitors  on  every  side,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
under  its  shadow  I  will  die. 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  Abraham  Lincoln:  A  History  (New  York,  1890), 
Ch.  II,  pp.  412-414. 

These  last  words  of  John  Brown  show  exactly  how  radical 
the  antislavery  movement  had  become : 

I  have,  may  it  please  the  Court,  a  few  words  to  say. 

In  the  first  place,  I  deny  everything  but  what  I  have  all  along 
admitted — the  design  on  my  part  to  free  the  slaves.  I  intended 
certainly  to  have  made  a  clear  thing  of  that  matter,  as  I  did  last 
winter,  when  I  went  into  Missouri,  and  there  took  slaves  without 
the  snapping  of  a  gun  on  either  side,  moved  them  through  the 
country,  and  finally  left  them  in  Canada.  I  designed  to  have  done 
the  same  thing  again,  on  a  larger  scale.  That  was  all  I  intended. 
I  never  did  intend  murder,  or  treason,  or  the  destruction  of  property, 
or  to  excite  or  incite  slaves  to  rebellion,  or  to  make  insurrection. 

I  have  another  objection:  and  that  is,  it  is  unjust  that  I  should 
Buffer  such  a  penalty.  Had  I  interfered  in  the  manner  which  I 
admit,  and  which  I  admit  has  been  fairly  proved, — for  (I  admire  the 
truthfulness  and  candor  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  witnesses  who 
have  testified  in  this  case) — had  I  so  interfered  in  behalf  of  the 
rich,  the  powerful,  the  intelligent,  the  so-called  great,  or  in  behalf 
of  any  of  their  friends,  either  father,  mother,  sister,  brother,  or  wife, 
or  children,  or  any  of  that  class,  and  suffered  and  sacrificed  what  I 
have  in  this  interference,  it  would  have  been  all  right,  and  every 
man  in  this  Court  would  have  deemed  it  an  act  worthy  of  reward 
rather  than  punishment. 

This  Court  acknowledges,  as  I  suppose,  the  validity  of  the  Law  of 
God.  I  see  a  book  kissed  here  which  I  suppose  to  be  the  Bible,  or  at 
least,  the  New  Testament.  That  teaches)  me  that  all  things  what 
soever  I  would  that  men  should  do  unto  me  I  should  do  even  so  to 
them.  It  teaches  me  further,  to  "remember  them  that  are  in  bonds 
as  bound  with  them."  I  endeavored  to  act  up  to  that  instruction. 
I  say,  I  am  yet  too  young  to  understand  that  God  is  any  respecter 
of  persons.  I  believe  that  to  have  interfered  as  I  have  done,  in  behalf 
of  His  despised  poor,  was  not  wrong,  but  right.  Now,  if  it  is 
deemed  necessary  that  I  should  forfeit  my  life  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  ends  of  justice,  and  mingle  my  blood  further  with  the  blood 
of  my  children,  and  with  the  blood  of  millions  in  this  slave  country 
whose  rights  are  disregarded  by  wicked,  cruel,  and  unjust  enact 
ments — I  submit;  so  let  it  be  done. 

Let  me  say  one  word  further: 

I  feel  entirely  satisfied  with  the  treatment  I  have  received  on  my 
trial.  Considering  the  circumstances,  it  has  been  more  generous  than 
I  expected.  But  I  feel  no  consciousness  of  guilt.  I  have  stated  from 
the  first  what  was  my  intention  and  what  was  not.  I  never  had 
any  design  against  the  life  of  any  person,  nor  any  disposition  to  com- 


368  Appendix 

mit  treason,  or  excite  slaves  to  rebel,  or  make  any  general  insur 
rection.  I  never  encouraged  any  man  to  do  so,  but  always  dis 
couraged  any  idea  of  that  kind. 

Let  me  say,  also,  a  word  in  regard  to  the  statements  made  by 
some  of  those  connected  with  me.  I  hear  it  has  been  stated  by  some 
of  them  that  I  have  induced  them  to  join  me.  But  the  contrary  is 
true.  I  do  not  say  this  to  injure  them,  but  as  regretting  their  weak 
ness.  There  is  not  one  of  them  but  joined  me  of  his  own  accord,  and 
the  greater  part  at  their  own  expense.  A  number  of  them  I  never 
saw,  and  never  had  a  word  or  conversation  with,  till  the  day  they 
came  to  me,  and  that  was  for  the  purpose  I  have  stated. 

Now  I  have  done. 

James  Redpath,  The  Public  Life  of  Capt.  John  Brown  (Boston, 
1860),  pp.  340-342. 

The  Act  to  Establish  a  Bureau  for  the  Belief  of  Freed- 
men  and  Refugees  was : 

Be  it  enacted  .  .  .  That  there  is  hereby  established  in  the  War 
Department,  to  continue  during  the  present  war  of  rebellion,  and 
for  one  year  thereafter,  a  bureau  of  refugees,  freedmen,  and  abandoned 
lands,  to  which  shall  be  committed,  as  hereinafter  provided,  the 
supervision  and  management  of  all  abandoned  lands,  and  the  control 
of  all  subjects  relating  to  refugees  and  freedmen  from  rebel  states,  or 
from  any  district  of  country  within  the  territory  embraced  in  the 
operations  of  the  army,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  may  be 
prescribed  by  the  head  of  the  bureau  and  approved  by  the  President. 
The  said  bureau  shall  be  under  the  management  and  control  of  a 
commissioner  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  .  .  .  And  the  commissioner  and 
all  persons  appointed  under  this  act,  shall,  before  entering  upon 
their  duties,  take  oath  of  office  prescribed  in  ...  (the  act  of  July 
2,  1862).  .  .  . 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  Secretary  of  War 
may  direct  such  issues  of  provisions,  clothing,  and  fuel,  as  he  may 
deem  needful  for  the  immediate  and  temporary  shelter  and  supply 
of  destitute  and  suffering  refugees  and  freedmen  and  their  wives 
and  children,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  he  may  direct. 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  President  may,  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  appoint  an  assistant  com 
missioner  for  each  of  the  states  declared  to  be  in  insurrection,  not 
exceeding  ten  in  number,  who  shall,  under  the  direction  of  the  com 
missioner,  aid  in  the  execution  of  the  provisions  of  this  act.  .  .  . 
And  any  military  officer  may  be  detailed  and  assigned  to  duty  under 
this  act  without  increase  of  pay  or  allowances.  The  commission 
shall,  before  the  commencement  of  each  regular  session  of  Congress, 
make  full  report  of  his  proceedings  with  exhibits  of  the  state  of  hia 
accounts  to  the  President,  who  shall  communicate  the  same  to 
Congress,  and  shall  also  make  special  reports  whenever  required  to  do 
so  by  the  President  or  either  house  of  congress;  and  the  assistant 


Appendix  369 

commissioners  shall  make  quarterly  reports  of  their  proceedings  to 
the  commissioner,  and  also  such  other  special  reports  as  from  time 
to  time  may  be  required. 

Sec.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  commissioner,  under 
the  direction  of  the  President,  shall  have  authority  to  set  apart, 
for  the  use  of  loyal  refugees  and  freedmen,  such  tracts  of  land  within 
the  insurrectionary  states  as  shall  have  been  abandoned,  or  to  which 
the  United  States  shall  have  been  abandoned,  or  to  which  the  United 
States  shall  have  acquired  title  by  confiscation  or  sale,  or  otherwise, 
and  to  every  male  citizen,  whether  refugee  or  freedman,  as  aforesaid, 
there  shall  be  assigned  not  more  than  forty  acres  of  such  land,  and 
the  person  to  whom  it  was  so  assigned  shall  be  protected  in  the  use 
and  enjoyment  of  the  land  for  the  term  of  three  years  at  an  annual 
rent  not  exceeding  six  per  centum  upon  the  value  of  such  land,  as  it 
was  appraised  by  the  state  authorities  in  the  year  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty,  for  the  purpose  of  taxation,  and  in  case  no  such  appraisal 
can  be  found,  then  the  rental  shall  be  based  upon  the  estimated 
value  of  the  land  in  said  year,  to  be  ascertained  in  such  manner  as 
the  commissioner  may  by  regulation  prescribe.  At  the  end  of  said 
term,  or  at  any  time  during  said  term,  the  occupants  of  any  parcels 
BO  assigned  may  purchase  the  land  and  receive  such  title  thereto 
as  the  United  States  can  convey,  upon  paying  therefor  the  value  of 
the  land,  as  ascertained  and  fixed  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
the  annual  rent  aforesaid. 

Sec.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  acts  and  parts  of  acts 
inconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act,  are  hereby  repealed. 

Approved,  March  3,  1865. 

Text  in  U.  8.  Statutes  at  Large,  XIII,  507-509.  For  the  pro 
ceedings  see  the  House  and  Senate  Journals,  38th  Congress,  1st  and 
2d  Sess.,  and  the  Cong.  Globe.  On  the  work  of  the  bureau  see  Senate 
Exec.  Doc.  28,  38th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.;  House  Exec.  Docs.  11,  70,  and 
120,  39th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.;  House  Exec.  Doc.  7,  39th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.; 
House  Report  30,  40th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.;  House  Exec.  Doc.  329,  ibid.; 
House  Exec.  Doc.  142,  41st  Cong.,  2d  Sess.;  House  Misc.  Doc.  87,  42d 
Cong.,  3d  Sess.;  House  Exec.  Doc.  100,  43d  Cong.,  1st  Sess.;  House 
Exec.  Doc.  144,  44th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.  On  the  condition  of  Freedmen 
see  Senate  Exec.  Doc.  53,  and  Senate  Report  25,  38th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.; 
House  Exec.  Doc.  118,  39th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.  Southern  State  legis 
lation  respecting  freedmen  is  summarized  in  McPherson,  Recon~ 
struction,  29-44.  See  also  Cox,  Three  Decades,  chap.  25. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  note  Abraham  Lincoln's  pro 
phetic  protest  against  lynch  law  uttered  in  1830.  He  said : 

In  the  great  journal  of  things  happening  under  the  sun,  we,  the 
American  people,  find  our  account  running  under  date  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  of  the  Christian  era.  We  find  ourselves  in  the  peace 
ful  possession  of  the  fairest  portion  of  the  earth  as  regards  extent 
of  territory,  fertility  of  soil,  and  salubrity  of  climate.  We  find 


370  Appendix 

ourselves  under  the  government  of  a  system  of  political  institutions 
conducing  more  essentially  to  the  ends  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
than  any  of  which  the  history  of  former  times  tells  us.  We,  when 
mounting  the  stage  of  existence,  found  ourselves  the  legal  inheritors 
of  these  fundamental  blessings.  We  toiled  not  in  the  acquirement  or 
establishment  of  them;  they  are  a  legacy  bequeathed  us  by  a  once 
hardy,  brave,  and  patriotic,  but  now  lamented  and  departed,  race  of 
ancestors.  .  .  . 

At  what  point  then  is  the  approach  of  danger  to  be  expected?  I 
answer,  if  it  ever  reach  us  it  must  spring  up  amongst  us;  it  cannot 
come  from  abroad.  If  destruction  be  our  lot  we  must  ourselves  be 
its  author.  We  must  live  through  all  time  or  die  by  suicide. 

I  hope  I  am  over  wary;  but  if  I  am  not,  there  is  even  now  some 
thing  of  ill  omen  amongst  us.  I  mean  the  increasing  disregard  for 
law  which  pervades  the  country — the  growing  disposition  to  substi 
tute  the  wild  and  furious  passions  in  lieu  of  the  sober  judgment  of 
courts,  and  the  worse  than  savage  mobs  for  the  executive  ministers 
of  justice.  This  disposition  is  awfully  fearful  in  any  community;  and 
that  it  now  exists  in  ours,  though  grating  to  our  feelings  to  admit, 
it  would  be  a  violation  of  truth  and  an  insult  to  our  intelligence  to 
deny.  .  .  . 

Turn  then  to  that  horror-striking  scene  at  St.  Louis.  A  single 
victim  only  was  sacrificed  there.  This  story  is  very  short,  and  ia 
perhaps  the  most  highly  tragic  of  anything  of  its  length  that  haa 
ever  been  witnessed  in  real  life.  A  mulatto  man  by  the  name  of 
Mclntosh  was  seized  in  the  street,  dragged  to  the  suburbs  of  the 
city,  chained  to  a  tree,  and  actually  burned  to  death;  and  all  within 
a  single  hour  from  the  time  he  had  been  a  freeman  attending  to  hia 
own  business  and  at  peace  with  the  world. 

Such  are  the  effects  of  mob  law,  and  such  are  the  scenes  becoming 
more  and  more  frequent  in  this  land  so  lately  famed  for  love  of  law 
and  order,  and  the  stories  of  which  have  even  now  grown  too  familiar 
to  attract  anything  more  than  an  idle  remark. 

But  you  are  perhaps  ready  to  ask,  "What  has  this  to  do  with  the 
perpetuation  of  our  political  institutions?"  I  answer,  "It  has  much 
to  do  with  it."  Its  direct  consequences  are,  comparatively  speaking, 
but  a  small  evil,  and  much  of  its  danger  consists  in  the  pronenesa 
of  our  minds  to  regard  its  direct  as  its  only  consequences.  .  .  .  But 
the  example  in  either  case  was  fearful.  When  men  take  it  in  their 
heads  today  to  hang  gamblers  or  burn  murderers,  they  should 
recollect  that  in  the  confusion  usually  attending  such  transactions 
they  will  be  as  likely  to  hang  or  burn  some  one  who  is  neither  a 
gambler  nor  a  murderer  as  one  who  is,  and  that,  acting  upon  the 
example  they  set,  the  mob  of  tomorrow  may,  and  probably  will,  hang 
or  burn  some  of  them  by  the  very  same  mistake.  And  not  only  so; 
the  innocent,  those  who  have  ever  set  their  faces  against  violations 
of  law  in  every  shape,  alike  with  the  guilty  fall  victims  to  the 
ravages  of  mob  law;  and  thus  it  goes  on,  step  by  step,  till  all  the 
w»lls  erected  for  the  defense  of  the  persons  and  property  of  indi 
viduals  are  trodden  down  and  disregarded.  But  all  this,  even,  is  not 
the  full  extent  of  the  evil.  By  such  examples,  by  instances  of  the 
perpetrators  of  such  acts  going  unpunished,  the  lawless  in  spirit  are 


Appendix  371 

encouraged  to  become  lawless  in  practice ;  and  having  been  used  to  no 
restraint  but  dread  of  punishment,  they  thus  become  absolutely 
unrestrained.  .  .  .  Tims,  then,  by  the  operation  of  this  mobocrat  spirit 
which  all  must  admit  is  now  abroad  in  the  land,  the  strongest  bul 
wark  of  any  government,  and  particularly  of  those  constituted  like 
ours,  may  effectually  be  broken  down  and  destroyed — I  mean  the 
attachment  of  the  people.  Whenever  this  effect  shall  be  produced 
among  us;  whenever  the  vicious  portion  of  (our)  population  shall 
be  permitted  to  gather  in  bands  of  hundreds  and  thousands,  and  burn 
churches,  ravage  and  rob  provision  stores,  throw  printing  presses  into 
rivers,  shoot  editors,  and  hang  and  burn  obnoxious  persons  at  pleasure 
and  with  impunity,  depend  upon  it,  this  government  cannot  last. 
By  such  things  the  feelings  of  the  best  citizens  will  become  more  or 
less  alienated  from  it,  and  under  such  circumstances,  men  of  sufficient 
talent  and  ambition  will  not  be  wanting  to  seize  the  opportunity, 
strike  the  blow,  and  overturn  that  fair  fabric  which  for  the  last 
half  century  has  been  the  fondest  hope  of  the  lovers  of  freedom 
throughout  the  world.  .  .  . 

The  question  recurs,  "How  shall  we  fortify  against  it?"  The 
answer  is  simple.  Let  every  American,  every  lover  of  liberty,  every 
well-wisher  to  his  posterity  swear  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution 
never  to  violate  in  the  least  particular  the  laws  of  the  country, 
and  never  to  tolerate  their  violation  by  others.  As  the  patriots  of 
seventy-six  did  to  the  support  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
BO  to  the  support  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  let  every  American 
pledge  his  life,  his  property,  and  his  sacred  honor — let  every  man 
remember  that  to  violate  the  law  is  to  trample  on  the  blood  of  his 
father,  and  to  tear  the  charter  of  his  own  and  his  children's  liberty. 
Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be  breathed  by  every  American  mother  to 
the  lisping  babe  that  prattles  on  her  lap ;  let  it  be  taught  in  schools, 
in  seminaries,  and  in  colleges;  let  it  be  written  in  primers,  spelling- 
books,  and  in  almanacs;  let  it  be  preached  from  the  pulpit,  pro 
claimed  in  legislative  halls,  and  enforced  in  courts  of  justice.  And, 
in  short,  let  it  become  the  political  religion  of  the  nation;  and  let 
the  old  and  the  young,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  grave  and  the  gay 
of  all  sexes  and  tongues  and  colors  and  conditions,  sacrifice  un 
ceasingly  upon  its  altars.  While  ever  a  state  of  feeling  such  as  this 
ehall  universally  or  even  very  generally  prevail  throughout  the 
nation,  vain  will  be  every  effort,  and  fruitless  every  attempt,  to 
subvert  our  national  freedom.  »  .  . 
A,  Lincoln,  Early  Speeches  (N.  Y.,  1907),  14-21  passim. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  A.  R.,  a  Negro  surgeon, 
234 

Abdy's  observation  of  interbreed 
ing,  111 

Abolition,  169-181 ;  in  the  South, 
182-183;  quelled  in  the  South, 
187;  rise  of,  in  the  West,  182- 
183 

Abolitionists,  achievements  of, 
188-190 

Achievements,  of  Negroes  un 
usual,  291-292 

Achievements  of  Negroes  in  free 
dom,  280-301 

Adams,  Henry,  a  leader  of  Negro 
migrants,  263-264 

Adams,  John,  fear  of,  57 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  the  cham 
pion  of  free*  speech,  195-198; 
not  an  antislavery  man,  196; 
comment  of,  on  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  343-344;  on  slav 
ery,  353-354 

Africa,  the  Negro  in,  1-14;  fea 
tures  of,  2;  civilizations  of, 
2-3 ;  slavery  in,  3-4 ;  peoples  of, 
5-6;  empires  in,  6,  7,  8-12;  Ne 
gro  colonists  in,  269 

African  colonization  in  the  Niger 
Valley,  167-168 

Alabama,  peonage  in,  270 

Albert,  A.  B.,  an  inventor,  294 

Aldridge,  Ira,  an  actor,  148 

Alexandria,  fugitive  slaves  in, 
226 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  the 
bearing  of,  on  secession,  219 

Allen,  Richard,  founder  of  the 
A.  M.  E.  Church,  77-78 

Alton,  Illinois,  the  murder  of 
Lovejoy  at,  215 


373 


American  Antislavery  Society,  the 
constitution  of  the,  350-351 

American  Federation  of  Labor, 
the,  and  the  Negro,  334-337 

Anthony,  Susan  B.,  an  abolition 
ist,  176 

Anti-abolition  riots,  191 

Antislavery  cause  during  the 
American  Revolution,  66;  in 
the  South,  the  decline  of,  86-98 

Antislavery  movement  restricted 
to  the  North,  187 

Antislavery  argument,  52-53 

Angolas,  the,  25 

Appeal,  the,  of  a  Southern  Ma 
tron,  351-352 

Appleton,  Nathaniel,  an  advocate 
of  the  rights  of  man,  55-56 

Apprenticeship  enforced,  244 

Arkansas,  the  reconstruction  of, 
241 

Arming  Negroes,  the,  advised, 
231-232 

Artisans,  Negro,  115 

Ashanti,  the  state  of,  10 

Association  for  the  Study  of  Ne 
gro  Life  and  History,  the,  341- 
342 

Attacks  on  slavery  through  the 
mails,  202 

Attacks  on  slavery  milder,  87 

Attucks,  Crispus,  a  martyr  for 
freedom,  58 

Augusta,  A.  T.,  a  Negro  surgeon, 
234 

A'Vache  colony,  the,  227-228 

Bacon,  Thomas,  interest  of,  in  the 
instruction  of  Negroes,  39 

Baker,  Henry  E.,  opinion  of,  as 
to  the  Negro  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin,  109 


374 


Index 


Baldwin,   William  H.,  a  philan 
thropist,  288-289 
Ball,  Thdmas,  a  Negro  contractor 

in  Ohio,  139 
Ballou,  General,  a  commander  of 

Negro  troops,  318 
Baltimore,    Lord,   the   owner  of 

Irish  Nell,  47 
Baltimore,   colonization    in,    162, 

163 
Bancroft's  opinion  as  to  the  valor 

of  Negro  soldiers  quoted,  65 
Banks,  General,  opinion  of,  as  to 

Negro  troops,  235 
Banks  controlled  by  Negroes,  292 
Banneker,  Benjamin,  the  mathe 
matician   and   astronomer,   68, 

69-70 
Bannister,  E.  M.,  a  painter,  148, 

299 

Bantu,  the,  4,  15 
Baptists,  the  Emancipating,  56 
Barrow,    David,    an    antislavery 

man  in  Kentucky,  90 
Bassett,  E.   D.,  a  reconstruction 

officeholder,  252;  the  education 

of,  252 
Beard,  Andrew   J.,  an   inventor, 

296 
Beers,  Captain,  the  killing  of,  by 

slaves,  36-37 

Bell,  Phillip  A.,  an  editor,  148 
Benezet,  Anthony,  a  friend  of  the 

Negro  and  promoter  of  Negro 

colonization,  56,   154,  155,  165 
Bentley,  George,  a  Negro  preack- 

er,  117 

Benton,  J.  W.,  an  inventor,  296 
Berea  College,  antislavery,  182 
Beriah  Green,  a  teacher  of  Negro 

youth  at  Oneida  Institute,  149 
Bias,  J.  G.,  an  advocate  of  colo 
nization,  166 

Biased  investigators,  339-341 
Binding  a  State,  119-120 
Bibb,  Henry,  a  colonizer,  166 
Birney,    James   G.,    an   abolition 
editor,  182;  press  of,  destroyed, 

184,    192;    the   employment  of 

Matilda  by,  206 
Black,  Jeremiah,   opinion  of,  on 

granting  slaves  patents,  111 
Black  Corsair,  the,  28 


Blair,  Henry,  an  inventor,  109 

Blazing  the  way  on  free  soil,  138- 
152 

Blease,  Cole,  a  leader  of  the  poor 
whites,  330 

Bold  slander,  a,  323-325 

Booker  T.  Washington  idea,  the, 
274-275 

Boston,  the  rising  of  slaves  in, 
36;  colonization  in,  161 

Bowditch,  William  J.,  an  aboli 
tionist,  174 

Bowman,  Henry  A.,  an  inventor, 
298 

Boyd,  Henry,  a  successful  manu 
facturer,  139 

Braithwaite,  W.  S.,  a  literary 
critic,  304 

Bradley,  Senator,  effort  of,  to 
stop  the  slave  trade,  81 

Brannagan,  Thomas,  the  interest 
of,  in  colonization,  155,  165 

Brazil,  the  Negro  Numantia  in, 
31-33 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  an  abolition 
writer,  185 

British,  the  arming  of  Negroes 
by,  60-62 

British  American  Manual  Labor 
Institute,  the  establishment  of, 
152 

British  Guiana,  sought  as  a  place 
for  colonization,  165 

Brown,  George  D.,  a  social  work 
er  among  Negroes,  286 

Brown,  John,  the  martyrdom  of, 
220;  the  last  words  of,  367-368 

Brown,  William  Wells,  a  Negro 
historian,  146-147;  an  anti- 
slavery  lecturer,  179 

Bruce,  B.  K.,  United  States  Sen 
ator,  249;  education  of,  251 
Bryan,  Andrew,  a  pioneer  preach 
er,  39,  67-68;   organizer  of  an 
independent  Baptist  Church,  77 

Buchanan,  James,  a  weak  presi 
dent,  217-218 

Bureau  for  the  Relief  of  Freed- 

men,  the,  368-369 
Burke,  the  imprisonment  of,  188 

Burleigh,    Charles    C.,   an    aboli 
tionist,  176 
Burleigh,  Harry,  a  musician,  298 


Index 


375 


Burnaby,  Andrew,  comment  of, 
on  slavery,  35 

Burns,  Anthony,  the  return  of, 
142 

Burr,  the  imprisonment  of,  188 

Business,  the  progress  of  Negroes 
in,  291 

Business  League,  292 

Butler,  General  B.  F.,  the  contra 
bands  of,  223-224 

Cain,  Richard  H.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 ;  education  of, 
251 

Calabar,  Eboes,  from,  25 
Caldwell,   Elisha  B.,  a  promoter 

of  colonization,  157,  158 
Calhoun,  John  C.,  the  defense  of 
slavery  by,  197,  199-200;  effort 
of,  to  have  mails  searched,  205, 
346-348 

California,  a  free  State,  213-214 
Canada,  progress  of  Negroes  in, 

166 
Camden,   Negro    insurrection   at, 

92 
Campbell,    Jabez,    a    churchman, 

148 
Canaan  Academy,  the  breakup  of, 

149 

Canada,  colonization  in,  167-168 
Canterbury,    Ct.,    the    Prudence 

Crandall  affair  in,  175 
Capability  of  Negro  officeholders, 

252 

Capers,  Bishop,  interest  of,  in 
the  religious  instruction  of  Ne 
groes,  97 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  a  philanthro 
pist,  289 

Cardozo,  F.  L.,  a  reconstruction 
officeholder,  252 ;  the  education 
of,  252;  honorable  record  of, 
253 

Gary,  Lott,  a  colonizationist,  158 
Cassey,  James,  opposition  of,  to 

colonization,  162 
Cassey,   Joseph    C.,    a    successful 

Negro,  135-136 
Cassor,    John,    a    Negro    owning 

slaves,  127 

Catto,  E.  V.  C.,  a  social  worker, 
286 


Chamberlain,  quotation  from,  6 
Channing,  W.  E.,  an  abolitionist, 
185;  opinion  of,  on  miscegena 
tion,  187  ;  interpretation  of  the 
constitution  by,  194 
Chapman,   Professor   Charles  E., 

quoted,  31 

Chapman,  Maria  Weston,  an  abo 
litionist,  174 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  ref 
ugees  in,  72-73 ;  the  free  Ne 
groes  of,  126-127;  the  prosper 
ity  of,  129 

Chase,  S.  P.,  construction  of  the 
constitution    by,    194;    counsel 
in  the  Van  Za'ndt  case,  206 
Chastellux,   Marquis  de,   opinion 
of,   as   to   the   valor   of  Negro 
soldiers,  63-64 
Gheatham,   H.   P?,   a   member   of 

Congress,  249 
Chester,     T.     Morris,     honorable 

record  of,  253 

Chicago,  race  riot  in,  328;  segre 
gation  tendencies  in,  333 
Child,  Lydia  Maria,  an  abolition 
ist,  174 
Choise,  Garret,  escape  of,  with  a 

Negro  woman,  46 
Christian  slavery,  18 
Christiana  tragedy,  the,  141 
Churches,   Negro,   broken   up   by 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,   141; 
the  progress  of,  284-285 
Cincinnati,  the   free  Negroes  in, 
138-139,  140;  riots  in,  98,  140 
Cinque,  Joseph,  the  leader  of  the 

rising  on  L'Amistad,  209 
Citizenship  of  Negroes,   120-121 
Civilization  of  Africa,  2-3 
Clark,    Edward   V.,   a   successful 

business  man,  136 
Glarkson,    Thomas,    a    discourse 

on,  149 

Clay,  Cassius  M.,  an  antislavery 
editor,  182;  expulsion  of,  from 
Kentucky,  186 

Clay,  Henry,  interest  of,  in  colo 
nization,  157 ;  the  evasive  po 
sition  of,  198-199;  the  compro 
miser,  213 

Clergy,  the  attitude  of,  toward 
the  blacks,  39 


376 


Index 


Coast,   Gold,   the   Dutch    traders 

on,  the,  21 

Codman,  John,  slaves  of,  put 
to  death  because  of  insurrec 
tion,  37 

Coffin,  Levi,  the  promoter  of  the 
Underground  Railroad,  143 

Collins,  Henry  M.,  a  successful 
business  man,  136;  an  advo 
cate  of  colonization,  166 

Colonization,  African,  153-168; 
impetus  to,  154;  the  difficul 
ties  of,  160;  protest  of  free  Ne 
groes  against,  161-162;  sup 
port  of,  from  Negroes,  162- 
163;  the  failure  of,  163-164; 
other  schemes  of,  164-168;  in 
Canada,  proposed,  165-166;  in 
Texas,  proposed,  164;  in  Brit 
ish  Guiana,  164;  in  Santo  Do 
mingo,  164;  in  the  West  In 
dies,  164-165 ;  in  Trinidad,  164 ; 
revival  of  by  Lincoln,  227 ;  re 
vival  of,  by  Turner  and  Mor 
gan,  268 

Colonizat/ionists  not  interested  in 
Africa,  166-167 

Columbia,  the  Negroes  at,  dis 
tributed,  141 

Columbus,  segregation  tendencies 
in,  333 

Comet,  The,  freedom  of  slaves  of, 
208 

Compensated  emancipation  pro 
posed,  221 

Complaint,  a  just,  338 

Compromise  of  1850,  the,  213-214 

Compromises  on  slavery  by  the 
Convention  of  1787,  74 

Conflict  of  classes  in  cities,  332- 
333 

Conflict  of  races  in  cities,  333- 
334 

Confiscation  of  property,  an  act 
for,  228-230 

Congo,  the,  2 

Congoes,  the,  25 

Congress,  the  action  of,  on  the 
memorial  from  the  Quakers  and 
from  the  Pennsylvania  Aboli 
tion  Society,  75-77;  report  of, 
adopted,  75-77  ;  lack  of  interest 
in  the  Negro,  76-77 


Congress    of    the    Confederation, 
silence  of,  on  slavery,  73 

Congressional  reconstruction,  246- 
248 

Conservatism  of  the  Negro,  331 

Constitution  of  the  American  An- 
tislavery  Society,  the,  350-351 

Constitutional  questions,  236-238 

Contrabands,  223-224 

Control  of  white  men  in  recon 
structed  States,  253 

Convention  of  1787,  the  attitude 
of,  toward  slavery,  73-74 

Convicts  as  teachers  of  Negroes 
and  whites,  40-41 

Cook,    John   F.,  a  minister   and 
teacher,  148 

Cook,  Will  Marion,  a  musician, 
298 

Corbin,  J.  C.,  honorable  record  of, 
253 

Cornish,    Samuel    E.,    an    editor, 
148 

Coromantees,  24 

Corruption  explained,  254-255 

Cotter,  Joseph  Seaman,  a  writer, 
303 

Cotton,  the  increase  in  the  pro 
duction  of,  70,  83 

Cotton  gin,  the,  invention  of,  79; 
the  effect  of,  80 

Craft,  William,  the  escape  of,  141 

Craft,  Ellen,  a  fugitive,  141 

Crandall,  Prudence,  the  imprison 
ment  of,  97-98,  175 

Crandall,   Reuben,   imprisonment 
of,  186 

Craney  Island,  fugitives  in,  226 

Credit  system  for  the  freedmen, 
262 

Creighton,  a  Negro   slaveholder, 
128 

Creole  Case,  the,  210-212 

Crime,  the  decrease  in,  284 

Crisis  of  1850,  the,  213 

Crisis,  The,  277-278 

Criticism  of  Negroes  in  the  army, 
322 

Crittenden,  Gov.  John,  pardon  of 
C.  Fairbank  by,  188 

Croft,  C.,  slaves  of,  burned  alive, 
37 


Index 


377 


Cromwell,  Isaac,  escape  of,  with 

a  white  woman^  46 
Cromwell,    J.    W.,    an   historian, 

301 
Crothers,  Samuel,  an  antislavery 

leader  in  the  Western  Reserve, 

184 

Crummell,  Alexander,  a  church 
man,  148-149 
Cuffe,   Paul,  the   interest  of,  in 

colonization,  156,  157 
Culture  of  Negroes,  1-14 
Curry,   J.   L.   M.,   efforts  of,  for 

Negro  education,  287 

Dabney,  Austin,  a  soldier  of  dis 
tinction  during  the  American 
Revolution,  65-66 ;  the  pension 
of,  66;  standing  of,  66 

Dahomey,  the  State  of,  10 

Daniel,  the  fugitive,  arrested,  141 

Dred  Scott  decision,  142 

Davidson,  S.  J.,  an  inventor,  294 

Davis,  Hugh,  a  white  man  charged 
with  lying  with  a  Negro  woman, 
47 

Davis,  Joseph,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  his  slaves,  106 

Declaration  of  Independence,  the, 
and  the  Negro,  56-57 

Decline  of  the  Seaboard  Slave 
States,  102 

De  Grasse,  John  V.,  a  Negro  sur 
geon,  234 

Delaney,  Martin  R.,  a  coloniza- 
tionist,  166,  167,  168;  an  offi 
cer,  234 

DeLarge,  R.  C.,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  249-250 

De  Mello,  Caetano,  expedition  of, 
sent  against  Palmares,  32 

Des  Moines,  the  training  camp 
for  Negro  officers  at,  317-318 

De  Niza,  Fray  Marcos,  Estevane- 
cito  with,  27 

Desalines,  child  of  the  rebellion 
in  Haiti,  72 

Dett,  Nathaniel,  a  musician,  298 

Diaguillo,  the  Black  Corsair,  28 

Dickinson,  J.  H.,  an  inventor,  294 

Dickinson,  S.  L.,  an  inventor,  294 

Dillard,  J.  H.,  efforts  of,  for  Ne 
gro  education,  287-288 


Discrimination  against  Negroes 
in  the  army,  315-323 

District  of  Columbia,  emancipa 
tion  in,  urged,  213;  slave  trade 
in,  abolished,  214 

Dix,  General,  attitude  of,  toward 
Negro  fugitives,  224 

Donate,  Martin,  a  Negro  slave 
holder,  129 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  popular  sov 
ereignty  of,  214 

Douglass,  Frederick,  an  opponent 
of  colonization,  160-167,  168; 
an  antislavery  lecturer,  179- 
181 ;  an  officeholder,  254 

Douglass,  H.  F.,  a  Negro  officer, 
234 

Douglass,  William,  a  churchman, 
148 

Douglass,  William,  an  inventor, 
294 

Dowd,  Jerome,  interest  of,  in  the 
study  of  the  Negro,  342 

Downing,  Thomas,  a  successful 
Negro,  136 

Doyle,  James,  an  inventor,  295- 
296 

DuBois,  W.  E.  B.,  an  educator 
and  leader,  267 ;  opposition  of, 
to  Booker  T.  Washington,  276- 
277 ;  a  controversial  writer,  301 

Dubuclet,  the  excellent  record  of, 
255 

Dulin,  John,  intelligent  slave  of, 
44 

Dunbar,  Paul  Laurence,  a  poet, 
301 ;  works  of,  301-303 

Duprey,  Louis,  an  antislavery 
man,  89 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  21 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  the  plunder 
ing  of,  21 

Drayton,  D.,  the  imprisonment  of, 
188 

Dred  Scott  case,  the  216,  217 

Dresser,  Amos,  the  punishment 
of,  186 

Early,  of  Georgia,  the  effort  of, 
in  favor  of  the  slave  trade,  81- 
82 

Eboes,  24,  25 

Economic  condition  of  the  freed- 


378 


Index 


men,  261-263;  remedies  for, 
proposed,  263 

Economic  problem  of  the  Negro 
after  the  migration,  334 

Economic  slavery  after  the  reac 
tion,  85,  99-123 

Education  of  Negroes  in  the  Eigh 
teenth  Century,  40-42,  43,  44; 
prohibition  of,  in  the  South, 
96;  of  slaves,  108-109;  trial  of, 
in  solving  the  Negro  problem, 
266 

Educational  advantages  of  Ne 
gro  reconstruction  officeholders, 
251-252 

Efforts  for  economic  betterment 
made  by  Negroes  themselves, 
337-338 

Egypt  and  the  North,  6,  7,  8,  11 

Ellicott,  George,  the  friend  of 
Benjamin  Banneker,  69-70 

Elliott,  Robert  B.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  251 ;  education  of, 
251 

Ellis,  William,  a  Negro  surgeon, 
234 

Ellsworth,  Oliver,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  slavery,  73 

Emancipation  by  enlistment  dur 
ing  the  Revolutionary  War,  62- 
63 ;  by  statute,  66-67 ;  the  check 
of,  71;  proclamation  of ,  by  Fre 
mont  during  the  Civil  War, 
228 ;  the  same  by  Hunter,  229 ; 
by  Lincoln,  230-231,  237-238 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  the, 
the  issuance  of,  230-231;  the 
constitutional  aspect  of,  237- 
238 

Emlen  Institute,  139 

Encomium,  The,  freedom  of  slaves 
of,  208 

Enfranchisement  of  Negroes,  the 
question  of,  256 

England,  slavery  in,  38 

Enlightenment  of  slaves,  108-109 

Enterprise,  The,  the  freedom  of 
the  slaves  of,  208 

Environment,  the  effect  of,  4-5 

Equality  before  the  law  advo 
cated  by  Sumner,  356-358 

Estevanecito,  explorations  of,  27- 
28 


Ethiopia,  the  rise,  of,  6,  7,  8 
Europe,  African  slaves  in,  18,  19 
Evans,  Henry,  a  preacher,  117 
Exceptional  slaves,  38-39 
Explorers,  Negroes  with,  27-28 
Exodus  of  1879,  the,  263-266 

Fairbank,   Calvin,  the   imprison 
ment  of,  188 

Fauset,  Jessie  R.,  a  writer,  303 
Featherstonaugh,  comment  of,  on 

the  internal  slave  trade,  99-100 
Fee,  John  G,,  an  abolitionist,  the 

founder  of  Berea  College,  182 
Ferdinand,   King,  and   the   slave 

trade,  19 
Fessenden,  W.  P.,  reconstruction 

ideas  of,  242 

Fighter,  the  Negro  as,  a,  325 
Finding  a  way  of  escape,  260-280 
Fifteenth  Amendment,  238 
Finley,    Robert,    a    promoter    of 

colonization,  157 
First   Regiment    Infantry   Corps 

d'Afrique,  232 
First     Regiment     of     Louisiana 

Heavy  Artillery,  232 
First  Regiment  of  Louisiana  Na 
tive  Guards,  232 
Florida,  peonage  in,  270 
Follen,    Eliza    Lee,   an    abolition 

poet,  174 
Force    bills,    the    enactment    of, 

256-258 
Force,  the  use  of,  to  check  the 

exodus  of  Negroes,  265 
Forten,  James,  an  inventor,  109; 

a  successful  business  man,  136; 

opposition  of,  to  colonization, 

162 
Fortress  Monroe,  fugitive  slaves 

at,  226 
Foss,  Andrew  T.,  an  abolitionist, 

176-177 
Foster,  Abby  Kelly,  an  antislav- 

ery  lecturer,  175-176 
Foster,  Stephen,  an  abolitionist, 

176 

Fothergill,  interest  of,  in  coloni 
zation,  154-155 

Fourteenth  Amendment,  238,  244 
Francis,    Henry,    a    teacher    and 

minister,  68-69 


Index 


379 


Franklin,  Benjamin,  interest  of, 
in  emancipation,  74-75 

Fraternal  organizations,  292 

Fray,  Marcos  de  Niza,  Estevane- 
cito  with,  27 

Free  Negroes,  124-137;  expulsion 
of,  from  the  South,  95-06;  re 
strictions  on,  95-96 ;  the  status 
of,  126-127;  the  progress  of, 
127;  owners  of  slaves,  127-128; 
the  wealth  of,  128-129;  rela 
tions  with  slaves,  133-134;  a 
disturbing  factor,  134-135;  the 
progress  of,  135;  opposition  of, 
to  colonization,  160-163 

Freedmen  among  the  Latins,  26- 
27;  in  Guatemala,  28;  mal 
treatment  of,  in  the  South,  244 

Freedmen's  Bureau,  the,  245-246, 
368-369 

Freedom  and  the  Negro  during 
the  American  Revolution,  58 

Fremont,  John.C.,  the  emancipa 
tory  order  of,  228 

French  generals,  the  praise  of, 
for  Negro  soldiers,  321-322 

French  traders  of  the  Senegal,  21 

Fugitive,  the,  112-113,  114,  142- 
143 ;  reactionary  measures  deal 
ing  with,  202;  in  the  army 
camps,  223-227;  Lincoln's  pol 
icy  with  respect  to,  225;  sent 
North,  226-227 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  effect  of, 
141 ;  the  law  of  1850,  213-214 

Fuller,  Meta  V.  W.,  a  sculptor, 
298 

Gaboons,  24 

Gabriels  Insurrection,  92 

Gag  rule,  the  adoption  of,  197- 
198 

Gage,  Sir  Thomas,  quotation 
from,  concerning  the  Black 
Corsair,  28-29 ;  observer  of  ex 
ceptional  slaves  and  Negroes, 
39 

Gambia,  the  megaliths  of,  8 ; 
English  traders  in,  21 ;  Ne 
groes  from,  24 

Garnett,  Henry  H..  a  churchman 
and  educator,  148-149 


Garrett,  Thomas,  an  abolitionist, 
174 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  sup 
posed  connection  with  Nat 
Turner,  94;  humiliation  and 
imprisonment  of,  191;  the  an- 
tislavery  efforts  of,  169,  170, 
172;  comment  of,  on  the  Con 
stitution,  194;  reward  offered 
for,  203;  extracts  from  The 
Liberator  of,  348-350 

Gaston,  William,  an  antislavery 
man  in  North  Carolina,  88 

Gay,  Sydney  Howard,  an  aboli 
tionist,  174 

George,  James,  an  intelligent 
slave  of,  44 

George  III  and  the  slave  trade, 
58 

Georgia,  peonage  in,  270 

Germans,  influence  of,  89 ;  com 
petition  of,  with  Negro  labor 
ers,  97-98,  130 

Gerry,  Elbridge,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  slavery,  73 

Ghana,  the  kingdom  of,  9 

Gibbs,  M.  W.,  honorable  record 
of,  253 

Giddings,  Joshua  R.,  an  antislav 
ery  congressman,  200 ;  resolu 
tions  of,  on  the  mutiny  of  the 
Creole  slaves,  211-212;  the  cen 
sure  of,  211;  the  resignation 
of,  211;  the  return  of,  to  Con 
gress,  212;  remarks  of,  on 
slavery,  355-356,  358-359 

Godkin,  E.  L.,  comment  of,  on 
the  internal  slave  trade,  101- 
102 

Goodell,  William,  report  of,  on 
miscegenation,  112;  an  aboli 
tionist,  177 

Goodloe,  Daniel  R.,  position  of 
with  reference  to  teaching  Ne 
groes,  06;  a  southern  aboli 
tionist,  182 

Goodrich,  William,  a  business 
man,  136 

Goodwyn,  Morgan,  appeal  of,  in 
behalf  of  slaves,  39 

Gordon,  Robert,  a  successful  Ne 
gro  coal-dealer  in  Cincinnati, 
139-140 


380 


Index 


Gordon,  William,  interest  of,  in 
freedom,  54 

Gorsuch,  the,  killing  of,  141 

Goybet,  General,  praise  of,  for 
Negro  soldiers,  321-322 

Gradual  emancipation  becoming 
popular,  87-88 

Grant,  U.  S.,  attitude  of,  toward 
fugitive  slaves,  224-225;  the 
use  of  Negroes  in  the  army  by, 
230;  report  of,  on  the  South, 
242-243 

Greeks  and  the  Negro,  5,  6 

Green,  Augustus  R.,  an  advocate 
of  colonization,  166 

Green,  Samuel,  imprisonment  of, 
187 

Greene,  Anna,  a  white  woman  es 
caping  with  a  Negro  man,  46 

Greene,  Colonel,  defended  by  Ne 
gro  soldiers,  65 

Greene,  General,  interest  of,  in 
the  enlistment  and  freedom  of 
the  Negroes,  61 ;  Negro  sol 
diers  under,  during  the  Rev 
olutionary  War,  65 

Greener,  R.  T.,  a  reconstruction 
officeholder,  252;  the  educa 
tion  of,  252 

Greer,  Allan  J.,  an  officer  arrayed 
against  Negroes,  320 ;  letter  of, 
to  Senator  McKellar,  321 

Grimke,  A.  H.,  a  protagonist  in 
the  struggle  for  social  justice, 
278 

Grimke  sisters,  abolitionists,  177 

Guatemala,  a  Negro  freedman  in, 
28;  maroons  in,  29-30 

Guinea,  the  Gulf  of,  5 

Guinea  Coast,  slave  trade  on,  21 

Haiti,  Negro  insurrection  in,  72- 
73;  colonization  in,  167,  168 

Hale,  John  P.,  an  antislavery 
senator,  193 

Hale,  Joseph,  slave  of,  able  to 
read  and  write,  42 

Hall,  Basil,  comment  of,  on  the 
internal  slave  trade,  100 

Halleck,  General,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  Negro  fugitives,  224 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  interest  of, 


in  the   freedom  of  the  Negro, 
61 
Hamlet,    the    fugitive,    arrested, 

141 
Hammon,    Jupiter,    a   writer    of 

verse,  301 

Hampton,  fugitive  slaves,  in,  226 
Hampton  Institute,  the  progress 

of,  288-289 

Hancock,  John,  opposition  of,  to 
the  enlistment  of  Negro  troops, 
59 

Haralson,  Jere,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  249 

Harper,   Chancellor,   position  of, 
on    the    teaching    of    Negroes, 
96-97 
Harper,  Frances  E.  W.,  a  writer 

of  verse,  301 
Harper,   William  A.,   a  painter, 

299 
Hardships    of    Negroes    in    the 

North,  130 

Harlan,  Robert,  a  successful  Ne 
gro  in  Ohio,  139 

Harris,  Dr.,  opinion  of,  as  to  the 
valor  of  Negro  soldiers  in  the 
American  Revolution,  65 
Hart,  A.  B.,  quoted,  171 
Hartford,   Connecticut,    coloniza 
tion  in,  162 

Hausa,  the  state  of,  9,  10 
Haughtiness   of   the   aristocratic 

class,  255-256 
Hawkins,  Sir   John,  exploits  of, 

20 

Hayes,  R.  B.,  the  withdrawal  of 
the  Federal  troops  by,  258-259 
Haynes,  George  E.,  head  of  the 
Bureau  of  Negro  Economics  in 
the  Department  of  Labor,  316 
Haynes,   Lemuel,   a   patriot   and 
soldier  of  the  American  Revo 
lution,  58,  63 
Hayward,  Colonel,  a  commander 

of  Negro  troops,  318 
Henson,  Josiah,  comment  of,  on 
the  internal  slave  trade,  100- 
101 ;  a  promoter  of  the  Under 
ground  Railroad,  143 ;  the  pro 
totype  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin, 
151-152 


Index 


381 


Henry,  Patrick,  an  advocate  of 

freedom,  57 
Hermosa,    The,    freedom    of    the 

slaves  of,  208 

Higher  pursuits,  slaves  in,  44-45 
Higginson,  T.  W.,  a  leader  of  Ne 


gro  troops,  235 
[ffl, 


Hill,  of  Chillicothe,  a  successful 
Negro,  138 

Hill,  L.  P.,  a  writer,  303 

Hillsboro,  Negro  insurrection  at, 
92 

Hilyer,  A.  F.,  an  inventor,  294 

Hispaniola,  slave  traders,  20 

Hoffman,  Frederick  L.,  interest 
of,  in  the  study  of  the  Negro, 
342 

Hollie,  Sallie,  an  abolitionist,  177 

Holly,  J.  T.,  a  colonizationist, 
166,  167,  168;  in  Haiti,  168 

Homes  of  Negroes,  improvements 
in,  287 

Hooter,  H.  E.,  an  inventor,  296 

Hopkins,  Samuel,  interest  of,  in 
freedom,  54 

Hovey,  Charles  F.,  an  abolition 
merchant,  174 

Howard,  O.  0.,  head  of  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau,  245-246;  foun 
der  of  Howard  University,  246, 
288 

Howard  University,  the  estab 
lishment  of,  246 

Howells,  W.  D.,  a  friend  of  Dun- 
bar,  301 

Hunter,  Alexander,  the  purchase 
of  a  slave  by,  127 

Hunter,  Major  General,  the  eman 
cipatory  order  of,  229;  Ne 
groes  armed  by,  232 

Humphries,  Solomon,  a  wealthy 
Negro,  129 

Hunton,  William  A.,  first  Negro 
International  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  Secre 
tary,  286 

Hyman,  John  A.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 

Impending  Crisis,  The,  216-217 
Indianapolis,  segregation  tenden 
cies  in,  333 


Industrial  revolution  and  the  re 
action,  79-80 

Industrial  Schools,  Negro,  the 
progress  of,  288-289 

Inferiority  of  races,  question  of, 
339-341 

Institutions  of  learning  founded, 
266 

Insurance  companies  controlled 
by  Negroes,  292 

Insult  to  Negro  army  officers, 
322-323 

Insurrection  of  the  Negroes  dur 
ing  the  early  periods  in  the 
colonies,  36-37;  in  the  West 
Indies,  72-73;  in  the  United 
States,  92-94 

Intellectual  development,  41-42, 
43-44 

Interbreeding,  133 

Interest,  differing,  of  the  sections, 
118-119 

Internal  improvements,  the  ques 
tion  of,  123 

Internal  slave  trade,  99-102 

International  entanglements,  208- 
212 

Interstate  slave  trade,  104 ;  the 
regulation  of,  103 

Intimidation  of  Negroes  in  the 
South,  244 

Inventions  of  Negroes,  109,  110, 
111,  293;  the  difficulties  of, 
298 

Investigation  of  social  problems 
a  necessity,  341 

Investigators,  biased,  339-340 

Irish  Nell,  marriage  of,  to  a  Ne 


gro  slave,  47 
Irish  in 


the  North,  competition 
of,  with  Negro  laborers,  97-98, 
130 

Irrepressible  Conflict,  The,  of 
William  H.  Seward,  363-365 

Isabella,  Queen,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  slavery,  19 

Jackson,  Benjamin  F.,  an  inven 
tor,  294 

Jackson,  Francis,  an  abolitionist, 
174 

Jackson,  May  Howard,  a  sculp 
tor,  299 


382 


Index 


Jacobs,  Governor  R.  T.,  pardon  of 
Fairbanks,  by,  88 

Jamaica,  Francis  Williams,  the 
scholar,  in,  29 ;  agents  from, 
in  quest  of  Negro  immigrants, 
164-165 

James,  David,  an  illegitimate  mu 
latto  bound  out,  48 

Jameson,  J.  F.,  interest  of,  in  the 
study  of  the  Negro,  342 

Jay,  William,  the  enemy  of  colo 
nization,  96-97  ;  thought  of,  on 
miscegenation,  187 ;  opinion  of, 
as  to  the  Constitution,  194 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  an  opponent 
of  slavery,  57-58;  message  to 
Congress  concerning,  81 ;  his 
fear  of  the  evil,  90 ;  interest 
of,  in  colonization,  155;  corre 
spondence  of,  with  Banneker, 
70 

Jenkins,  David,  a  successful  Ne 
gro  in  Ohio,  138 

Jenne,  the  state  of,  10 

Jerry,  the  fugitive  arrested  in 
Syracuse,  141 

Johnson,  Andrew,  acceptance  of 
Lincoln's  reconstruction  plan 
by,  241-242 

Johnson,  Georgia  Douglas,  a 
poet,  303 

Johnson,  James  Weldon,  a  writer, 
303 

Johnson,  Oliver,  an  abolitionist, 
177 

Johnson,  William  H.,  an  inven 
tor,  296 

Johnson,  a  hero  of  the  World 
War,  325 

Johnson,  General,  the  attitude  of, 
toward  fugitive  slaves,  224 

Jones,  C.   C.,   interest  of,  in  the 

instruction  of  Negroes,  97 
Judson,  Andrew  T.,  the  decision 
of,  in  the  Amistad  Case,  209 

Kansas-Nebraska  question,  214 
Kansas  Colored  Volunteers,  232 
Keith,  George,  interest  of,  in  the 

instruction  of  Negroes,  39;    in 

colonization,  154 
Kemble,  Frances,  an  antislavery 

writer,  185 


Kench,    Thomas,    interest   of,    in 

the  enlistment  of  Negroes,  63 
Kentucky,  failure  of,  to  prohibit 

the  teaching  of  Negroes,  96 
Key,  Francis   Scott,  a  promoter 

of  colonization,  157 
Koch,  Bernard,  the  agent  of  the 

colonizationists    of    the    Civil 

War  period,  227-228;  governor 

of    the    A'Vache    colony,    227- 

228 
Kreamer,     Henry,     an     inventor, 

294 
Ku  Klux  Klan,  the  operations  of, 

256-258,  269 ;  recrudescence  of, 

325-326 

Labor  a  factor  in  the  Negro  sit 
uation,  306-307 
Loyalty    of    Negroes,    313,    314, 

316-317 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  opinion  of 
as  to  the  valor  of  Negro  sol 
diers,  65 
Lafon,  Thorny,  a  wealthy  Negro, 

127 
Lago,  William,  the  indictment  of, 

in  Kentucky,  203 
Lambert,  William,  a  colonization- 

ist,  166 
L' Amistad,    the    freedom    of   the 

slaves  of,  209 
Lane,    Lunsford,    an    antislavery 

lecturer,  176,  179 
Lane  Theological  Seminary,  anti- 
slavery,  184 

Langston,  J.  M.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249;  the  education 
of,  251 

Latimer  Case,  the,  206-207 
Last  words  of  John  Brown,  367- 

368 
Latins,     the     enlightenment     of 

slaves  among,  26 
Latrobe,   J.    H.    B.,   a   factor    in 

colonization,  159 
Laurens,  Henry,  the  proposal  of, 
for   enlisting   and    freeing   Ne 
groes,  58,  62 
Law,   Josiah,   interest  of,   in  the 

instruction  of  Negroes,  97 
Lawrence,  Samuel,  rescue  of,  by 
Negroes,  58 


Index 


383 


Lay,  Benjamin,  attack  of,  on 
slavery,  53-54 

Leadership,  trained,  200 

Leavitt,  Joshua,  an  abolitionist, 
171 

Lecky's  opinion  of  the  valor  of 
Negro  soldiers  mentioned,  65 

Lecturers,  antislavery,  175-177 

Lee,  Joseph,  an  inventor,  206 

Le  Jeune,  Paul,  a  missionary,  39 

Leonard,  James,  an  intelligent 
slave  of,  44 

Le  Petit,  a  missionary,  39 

Lewis,  Edmonia,  the  artist,  148 

Lewis,  John  W.,  a  Negro  busi 
ness  man,  202 

Liberator,  The,  the  influence  of, 
170,  171;  beginnings  of  the, 
348-350 

Liberia,  the  exodus  of  Negroes 
to,  128 

Liele,  George,  a  pioneer  preacher, 
68 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  the  slavery 
issue  by,  215,  216,  221,  228; 
interest  of  in  compensated 
emancipation,  221 ;  policy  of,  in 
dealing  with  fugitive  'slaves, 
225;  interest  of,  in  freedmen, 
227,240;  emancipation  by,  229- 
230;  powers  of,  238-230;  plan 
of,  for  reconstruction,  239-240 ; 
comment  of,  on  lynching,  370- 
371 

Long,  Jefferson  F.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  antislavery 
writings  of,  185 

Louisiana,  reconstruction  of,  241 

Louisiana  Purchase,  the,  and 
slavery,  78-70 

L'Ouverture,  Toussaint,  leader  of 
the  insurrection  in  Haiti,  72 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  the  murder 
of,  102,  215 

Lowden,  Fred  J.,  an  inventor,  206 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  the  antislavery 
writings  of,  185 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  an  abolition 
ist,'  182 

Lundy,  Benjamin,  a  gradual 
emancipationist,  89;  a  coloni- 
zationist,  15C 


Lynch,  John  R.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249;  the  education 
of,  251 

Lynching  on  the  increase,  261 ;  in 
Washington,  327-328;  remarks 
of  Lincoln  on,  369,  371 

McCook,  General,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  the  fugitive  slaves,  224 

McCoy,  Elijah  J.,  an  inventor, 
297 

McCrummell,  James,  the  opposi 
tion  to  colonization,  162 

McHenry,  James,  a  friend  of 
Benjamin  Banneker,  70 

McKellar,  Senator  K.  D.,  the  let 
ter  of  Allan  J.  Greer  to,  320 

McKim,  an  agent  of  the  Under 
ground  Railroad,  177 

Madison,  James,  suggestion  as  to 
emancipation,  62 

Madison,  James,  the  complaint 
of  the  sister  of,  as  to  miscege 
nation,  111-112 

Madison,  W.  G.,  an  inventor,  296 

Mahan,  Asa,  an  antislavery  stu 
dent  at  Lane  Seminary,  184: 
one  of  the  founders  of  Oberlin 
College,  184;  indictment  of,  in 
Kentucky,  203 

Mail,  the  use  of,  in  reaching  Ne 
groes,  203 

Major,  John,  the  murder  of,  by 
slaves,  36 

Mansfield,  Lord,  the  Somerset  de 
cision  of,  38 

Manumission  after  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  54-55;  in  the 
Middle  States,  54,  55 

March,  Charles,  a  colonizationist, 
157 

Marcy,  Governor,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  the  fugitive,  203 

Maroons,  the,  30-31 ;  in  Guate 
mala,  29-30 

Martin,  Samuel,  a  Negro  slave 
holder,  128 

Martin,  Asa,  estimate  of  the  ex 
tent  of  the  internal  slave  trade 
by,  102 

Martineau,  Harriet,  a  case  of 
miscegenation  observed  by,  112 


384 


Index 


Maryland,  failure  of,  to  prohibit 

the  teaching  of  Negroes,  96 
Maryland,  miscegenation  in,  46- 

47;  free  Negroes  sold  in,  130 
Maryville     College,     antislavery, 

182 
Mason,    George,   an    advocate   of 

freedom,  58 

Massachusetts,  Negroes  of,  leave 
for  Canada,  141;  the  uprising 
of  slaves  in,  36;  protest  of, 
against  the  enlistment  of  Ne 
groes  in  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  58 

Massacres  of  Negroes,  261 
Matilda,  the  question  as  to  the 

freedom  of,  206 
Matthews,  W.  D.,  a  Negro  officer, 

234 

Matzeliger,  Jan  E.,  a  noted  Ne 
gro  inventor,  293;  results  from 
patent  of,  293-294 
May,  Thomas,  an  intelligent  slave 

of,  42 
May,  Samuel,  Jr.,  an  abolitionist, 

174 
May,  Samuel  J.,  an  abolitionist, 

174,  175 
Measurements,  psychological,  340- 

341 

Mechanics,  Negro,  115 
Mecklin,  John  M.,  interest  of,  in 

the  study  of  the  Negro,  342 
Mediterranean  world,  Negroes  in, 

6,  7,  8 

Melle,  the  kingdom  of,  9-10 
Memphis,  fugitive  slaves  in,  226 
Menial  service  of  Negroes  in  the 

North,  274 

Mendez,  exploits  of,  21 
Mercer  County,  Ohio,  the  Negroes 

in,  139 
Mercer,  Charles  Fenton,  interest 

of,  in  colonization,  157 
Merrick,   John,  a   business  man, 

292 

Methodists,  opposition  of,  to  slav 
ery,  56 

Metoyer,  Marie,  a  negro  slave 
holder,  129 

Mexico,  the  organization  of  ter 
ritory  acquired  from,  213;  Ne 
gro  colonists  in,  269 


Middle  States,  slavery  in,  35-36; 
Manumission  in,  54 

Miflin,  Ann,  interest  of,  in  colo 
nization,  155-156 

Migration  of  the  Negroes  to  the 
North,  265-266,  306-310;  causes 
of,  309-310 

Military  districts  in  the  South 
247 

Mild  attack  on  slavery,  87 

Miller,  Kelly,  an  educator,  267 
301 

Miller,  Matthew,  opinion  of,  as 
to  Negro  troops,  236 

Miller,  Thomas  E.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  251 

Milligan  Case,  the,  236 

Mills,  Elijah  J.,  a  promoter  of 
colonization,  157 

Mills,  Samuel  J.,  a  colonization- 
ist,  157 

Miner,  Myrtilla,  the  work  of,  144 

Minor,  Patrick  A.,  a  Negro  offi 
cer,  234 

Miscegenation  of  the  whites  and 
blacks,  45-50,  133;  danger  of, 
50;  cases  of,  111-112 

Mississippi,  peonage  in,  270 

Missouri  Compromise,  120-121; 
comment  on,  by  J.  Q.  Adams, 
343-344;  remarks  of  John  Ser 
geant  on,  344-346 

Mobile,  Alabama,  the  Negroes  of, 
protected  by  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase  Treaty,  78-79 

Mohammed  Askia,  11 

Mohammedans  in  Africa,  8,  9,  10, 
11,  12,  15,  16,  17 

Molson,  Richard,  the  escape  of 
the  slave  of,  with  a  white 
woman,  46 

Montgomery,  Benjamin  T.,  an  in 
ventor,  111 

Montgomery,  Isaiah  T.,  experi 
ences  of,  as  a  slave,  106;  a 
business  man,  292 

Monroe,  President,  interest  of,  in 

colonization,  159 
Moore,  William,  intelligent  slave 

of,  42 

Morgan,  John,  an  antislavery 
student  at  Lane  Seminary, 


Index 


385 


184;    one   of  the   founders    of 

Oberlin  College,  184 
Morgan,   Senator,  interest  of,  in 

colonization,  268-269 
Morris,   Thomas,   an   antislavery 

congressman,  193 
Moton,  R.  R.,  the  head  of  Tuske- 

gee,  291 
Mott,    Lucretia,    an   abolitionist, 

177 

Mott,  James,  an  abolitionist,  177 
Mound  Bayou,  the  home  of  a  for 
mer  slave,  106 
Mulattoes,  133 
Mulber,  Luke,  a  successful  Negro 

in  Ohio,  138 

Murray,  George  W.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  251;  an  inventor,  294 
Mustees,  133 

Nagoes,  24 

Nash,  Charles  E.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 

National  Association  for  the  Ad 
vancement  of  Colored  People, 
the  work  of  the,  277-278 

National  Association  of  Funeral 
Directors,  292 

National  Negro  Bankers'  Asso 
ciation,  292 

National  Negro  Retail  Merchants' 
Association,  292 

Negro,  the,  enslaved,  15-34;  the 
rights  of  man  and  the,  51-52; 
status  of,  reduced,  86,  87;  in 
the  Civil  War,  221-238;  in  the 
World  War,  305-328;  the,  and 
social  justice,  328-342 

Negro  contrabands,  the  record  of, 
230 

Negro  Churches,  117 

Negro  preachers,  117 

Negro  soldiers,  enlisted  in  Vir 
ginia,  61 ;  in  Rhode  Island,  62- 
63;  in  New  York,  63;  in  New 
Hampshire,  63;  in  Maryland, 
63;  opinions  as  to  service  of, 
63-65 

Negro  units  proposed  for  the 
American  Revolutionary  forces, 
58-59;  protest  against,  58-59; 
decision  against,  59;  fear  of, 
60-61 ;  armed  by  British,  60-62 


Negroes  as  refugees  during  the 
Civil  War,  223-230;  loyal  to 
the  United  States,  313-314 

Nell,  Irish,  marriage  of,  to  a 
slave,  47 

Nell,  William  C.,  a  Negro  his 
torian,  145-146 

Newberne,  Negro  insurrection  at, 
92-93 

New  England,  slavery  in,  35 

New  England  and  secession,  219 

New  Orleans,  Haitian  refugees  in, 
72-73 

New  York  City,  the  Negro  riot 
in,  37,  98 ;  miscegenation  in, 
49;  colonization  in,  161,  162, 
163 ;  antislavery  society  in, 
171-172;  anti-abolition  move 
ment  in,  191;  the  fugitive  ques 
tion  in,  203 

New  York  Fifteenth,  318 

Niger,  the,  2,  8;  Martin  R.  De- 
laney  in  the  valley  of,  167-168 

Nile,  the,  2,  6,  7 

Niles,  Hezekiah,  a  promoter  of 
colonization,  157 

Niles,  Nathaniel,  interest  of,  in 
freedom,  54 

Ninety-second  Division,  of  Negro 
soldiers,  318 

Norfolk,  Haitian  refugees  at,  72 

North,  reaction  against  the  Ne 
gro  in,  76-77 ;  the  free  Negroes 
in,  129-137;  fugitives  in,  226- 
227;  the  migration  of  Negroes 
to,  271-272,  306-310;  the  ad 
vantages  of  Negroes  in,  307, 
308;  troubles  of  Negroes  in, 
310-311;  the  recent  situation 
in,  331 

North     Carolina,     miscegenation 
in,  48-49;  Negro  voters  in,  67; 
peonage  in,  270 
Numantia,  the  Negro,  31-33 

Oberlin  College,  the  establish 
ment  of,  184 

Officers,  Negro,  the  demand  for, 
316-317 ;  discrimination  against, 
317-325;  training  of,  at  Des 
Moines,  317-318;  praised  by 
French,  321-322 


386 


Index 


Ogden,  Robert  C.,  a  philanthro 
pist,  289 

O'Hara,  James  E.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 ;  the  education 
of,  251 

Ohio,  the  question  of  fugitives 
in,  203;  anti-Negro  laws  of, 
206 

Opposition  to  slavery,  216-217 

Oppression  a  cause  of  migration, 
310 

Ordinance  of  1787,  the  emancipa 
tory  clause  of,  66,  73,  120 

Ordingsell,  Anthony,  the  sale  of 
a  slave  by,  127 

Otis,  James,  an  advocate  of  free 
dom,  57 

Outcast,  the  free  Negro  an,  132- 
133 

Paine,  L.  W.,  the  imprisonment 
of,  188 

Palmares,  the  Negro  Numantia, 
31-33;  the  destruction  of,  33 

Palmyra,  riot  at,  98 

Parker,  John  T.,  an  inventor,  296 

Pawpaws,  24 

Paxton,  John  D.,  the  attack  of, 
on  slavery,  90 

Payne,  Daniel  A.,  a  churchman, 
148 

Pelham,  Robert  A.,  an  inventor, 
294 

Penn,  William,  the  owner  of 
slaves,  35 

Pennington,  J.  W.  C.,  a  church 
man,  149-150 

Pennsylvania,  miscegenation  in, 
49-50;  anti-abolition  riots  in, 
191-192 

Pennsylvania  Society  for  the 
Abolition  of  Slavery,  memorial 
of,  to  Congress,  75;  action 
taken  thereon,  75-77 

Peonage,  270-271 

Pernambuco  and  Palmares,  31-33 

Perry,  Heman,  a  business  man, 
292 

Personal  liberty  laws,  112-113, 
205-206 

Phelps,  J.  W.,  the  arming  of  Ne 
groes,  undertaken  by,  232 


Philadelphia,  miscegenation  in, 
49 ;  manumission  promoted  in, 
54;  riot  in,  98;  progress,  of 
free  Negroes  in,  136;  segrega 
tion  tendencies  in,  333 

Philanthropist,  The,  184 

Phillips,  Wendell,  an  antislavery 
orator,  172,  174;  attitude  of, 
toward  the  Constitution,  216 

Physicians,  Negro,  285 

Pick  ens,  William,  an  orator,  267, 
301 

Pickering,  J.  L.,  an  inventor,  296 

Pinchback,  P.  B.  S.,  a  reconstruc 
tion  officeholder,  252;  the  edu 
cation  of,  252;  record  of,  254 

Piracy,  21 

Pittsburg,  riot  in,  98;  segrega 
tion  tendencies  in,  333 

Plantation  system  as  a  result 
from  the  industrial  revolution, 
79-80,  105,  106,  107 

Platt,  William,  a  successful  free 
Negro,  135 

Politics  and  slavery  in  the  South, 
83 

Politicians,  Negro,  leaving  the 
South,  272 

Polk,  Bishop,  interest  of,  in  the 
instruction  of  Negroes,  97 

Popular  sovereignty,  214 

Portsmouth,  Ohio,  riot  at,  98, 
140 ;  fugitive  slaves  in,  226 

Port  Royal,  South  Carolina,  fugi 
tive  slaves  in,  226 

Portugal,  slaves  in,  1 

Poore,  Salem,  exploits  of,  58 

Potomac,  the  bravery  of  Negroes 
along,  236 

Powell,  William,  a  Negro  sur 
geon,  234 

Prejudice  a  factor  in  the  South, 
254;  in  the  army,  323 

Preparation  of  slaves  for  eman 
cipation,  67-68 

Presbyterians,  opposition  of,  to 
slavery,  56 

Presley,  J.,  a  successful  Negro  in 
Ohio,  139 

Price,  J.  C.,  an  orator  and  edu 
cator,  266 

Prigg  Case,  the,  206 


Index 


387 


Prince  Henry,  explorations  of,  19 
Privileges  of   free  Negroes,   131- 

132 

Professions,  Negroes  in,  283-284 
Progress  of  the  Negro  race,  statis 
tics  on,  280-283 ;  of  the  Church, 
284-285 
Promoters   of   colonization,    154- 

155 
Property  of  Negroes,  the  worth 

of,  292 

Proslavery  argument,  52-53 
Proslayery   victory   in   the   mild 
prohibition  of  the  slave  trade, 
82 

Protest,  further,  182-194 
Proverbs,  African,  12-14 
Punishment  of  slaves,  108 
Puritans,     attitude    of,     toward 

slavery,  52 

Pursuits,  higher,  slaves  in,  44-45 
Purvis,  Robert,  opposition  of,  to 

colonization,  162 
Purvis,  Charles  B.,  a  Negro  sur 
geon,  234 
Purvis,  W.  B.,  an  inventor,  294 

Quakers,  attitude  of,  toward  slav 
ery,  52,  54;  memorial  of,  to 
Congress,  74,  75,  76;  opposi 
tion  of,  to  slavery  continued, 
88 ;  interest  of,  in  colonization, 
154-155 

Quincy,  Edmund,  an  abolitionist, 
174 

Quinn,  William  P.,  a  minister, 
148 

Races  in  Africa,  1-14 

Race  riot  in  Washington,  326- 
328 

Radical  leaders  of  poor  whites, 
330 

Rainey,  J.  H.,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  249 

Randolph,  John,  the  attitude  of, 
toward  the  slave  trade,  82; 
comment  of,  on  slavery,  90;  on 
colonization,  157 

Rankin,  John,  an  antislavery 
leader  in  the  Western  Reserve, 
184;  comment  of,  on  miscege 
nation,  187 


Ransier,  Alonzo  J.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  251 

Rapier,  James  T.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249;  the  education 
of,  251 

Rapier,  John,  a  Negro  surgeon, 
234 

Rappahannock  River,  the  rising 
of  slaves  oil,  36 

Ray,  Charles  B.,  a  churchman, 
148 ;  letter  of,  Gerrit  Smitli  to, 
186 

Ray,  Robert,  opposition  of,  to 
colonization,  162 

Raymond,  Daniel,  the  opposition 
of,  to  slavery,  90 

Reaction  against  the  Negro,  71- 
85;  in  the  North,  97-98 

Reason,  Charles  L.,  a  scholar,  148 

Rebellion  of  the  Negroes  in  the 
West  Indies,  72-73 

Reconstruction  of  the  Southern 
States,  239-259;  various  theo 
ries  about,  242;  the  plan  of 
Congress  for,  246-248;  the  un 
doing  of,  259 

Redpath,  James,  a  colonization- 
ist,  168 

Reed,  William  N.,  a  Negro  offi 
cer,  233-234 

Refugees,  Haitian,  in  United 
States,  72-73;  influence  of,  92- 
93 

Religious  bodies  opposed  to  slav-' 
ery,  51-52 

Religious  freedom,  the  bearing 
of,  on  the  emancipation  of  the 
Negroes,  67-68 

Removal  of  a  slave  to  a  free 
State,  the  effect  of,  205;  in 
Pennsylvania,  205;  in  Massa 
chusetts,  205 

Remond,  Charles  Lenox,  an  an 
tislavery  lecturer,  178-179,  180 

Rent  system  for  the  freedmen, 
262 

Republican  Party,  the  organiza 
tion  of,  217 

Relations  of  slaves  and  free  Ne 
groes,  133-134 

Religious  instruction  limited,  116- 
118 


388 


Index 


Restored  South,  268;  the  cruelty 

of,  268 
Resignation   of  Negroes  to   fate, 

267 
Restrictions     on     manumissions, 

128;  on  free  Negroes,  130-131 
Return  of  Negroes  to  the  South, 

130 

Return  of  fugitives,  the  constitu 
tional  question  of,  200-202 
Revels,  Hiram  R.,  a  member  of 
the  United  States  Senate,  249; 
the  education  of,  251 
Rhett,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the 

defense  of  slavery,  198 
Ricard,  Cyprian,  a  wealthy  Ne 
gro,  129 
Richardson,  Richard,  the  sale  of 

a  slave  by,  127 
Richards,    Benjamin,    a   business 

man,  136 
Richey,  Charles  V.,  an  inventor, 

294 
Riddell,  W.  R.,  interest  of,  in  the 

study  of  the  Negro,  342 
Right  of  petition  denied,  195-198 
Rights   of  man   and   the  Negro, 

55-56 
Rillieux,    Norbert,    an    inventor, 

109-110 

Riots  of  Negroes  with  Irish  and 
Germans  in  the  North,  98,  140- 
141 

Rise,  the,  of  the  poor  whites,  330 
Roberts,    a    hero    of    the   World 

War,  325 

Robinson,  E.  A.,  an  inventor,  298 
Rockefeller,   John    D.,   a   philan 
thropist,  298 

Rockefeller,  John  D.,  Jr.,  inter 
est  of,  in  the  study  of  the  Ne 
gro,  342 
Rogers,  H.  H.,  a  philanthropist, 

289 
Rogers,    N.    P.,   an   abolitionist, 

177 

Roques,  Charles,  a  Negro  slave 
holder,  129 

Rosenwald,  Julius,  a  philanthro 
pist,   289;    interest   of,   in  the 
study  of  the  Negro,  342 
Royal  African  Company,  21 


Ruffner,  effort  of,  for  Negro  edu 
cator,  288 

Ruggles,  David,  a  leader  in  the 
crisis,  149 

Rush  of  Negroes  to  cities,  the, 
272,  273 

Russwurm,  John  B.,  the  first  Ne 
gro  college  graduate  in  the 
United  States,  144-145;  a  colo- 
nizationist,  159,  160 

Rutherford,  S.  W.,  a  Negro  busi 
ness  man,  292 

Rutledge,  Governor,  a  Negro  slave 
of,  distinguished  by  his  valor, 
65 

Salem,  Peter,  the  killing  of  Ma 
jor  Pitcairn  by,  58 
Sandiford,   Ralph,  attack  of,  on 

slavery,  53 
Sandoval,   Alphonso,   protest   of, 

39 
Sandy   Lake,   the   settlement  of, 

broken  up,  141 

Santo  Domingo,  Negro  insurrec 
tion  in,  72;  sought  as  a  place 
for  colonization,  165 

Savannah,  Georgia,  the  uprising 
of  slaves  at,  36 

Schools,  Negro,  the  progress  of 
288-289 

Schurz,  Carl,  report  of,  on  the 
South,  242-243 

Scotch-Irish,  influence  of,  89 

Scott,  Emmett  J.,  Special  Assis 
tant  to  the  Secretary  of  War, 
316,  318 

Scott,  George,  the  self-assertion 
of  the  slaves  of,  36 

Scott,  Henry,  a  successful  Negro, 
135-136 

Scott,  William  E.,  a  painter,  299 

Seamen  Acts  of  South  Carolina, 
202 

Searching  the  mails,  205 

Secession  undertaken,  217.  218, 
219-220 

Secret  Information  concerning 
Black  American  Troops,  323- 
324 

Senegal,  traders  on,  21 ;  coloniza 
tion  on  the,  159 

Segregation,  the  results  of,  338 


Index 


389 


Sergeant,  John,  remarks  of,  on 
the  Missouri  Compromise,  344- 
346 

Servants  indentured,  17,  18 

Service  of  Negro  troops,  234-236 

Settlements  of  Negroes  broken 
up,  140-141 

Sevilla,  slaves  in,  19 

Seward,  W.  H.,  attitude  of,  to 
ward  the  fugitive,  202;  an  an- 
tislavery  leader  in  Congress, 
216;  counsel  in  the  John  Van 
Zandt  case,  206;  Higher  Law 
than  the  Constitution  of,  359- 
361;  Irrepressible  Conflict  of, 
363-365 

Shadrach,  the  fugitive,  arrested, 
141 

Sharp,  Granville,  attorney  in  the 
Somerset  case,  38;  interest  of, 
in  colonization,  155 

Shaw,  John,  refusal  of,  to  grant 
a  writ  for  the  freedom  of  a 
fugitive,  206 

Shaw,  R.  G.,  a  commander  of  Ne 
gro  troops,  235 

Shellabarger,  reconstruction  plan, 
of,  242 

Sherbro,  the  figures  of,  8,  9 

Singleton,  Benjamin,  a  leader  of 
Negro  migrants,  264 

Simms,  Thomas,  the  fugitive  ar 
rested,  142 

Simpson,  William  H.,  a  painter, 
148 

Skilled  labor,  281-282 

Slade,  William,  an  antislavery 
congressman,  193 

Slander,  a  bold,  323-325 

Slavebreeding,  102 

Slave  trade,  16,  17;  the  horrors 
of,  22,  24;  in  the  South,  72; 
efforts  to  stop  the,  80-82 

Slave  trading  corporations,  21 

Slavery,  ancient,  15;  Mohamme 
dan,  15,  16,  17;  Christian,  18; 
European,  18,  19;  the  intro 
duction  of,  in  America,  21 ;  in 
its  mild  form,  34-50;  slavery 
in  the  North,  35;  in  New  Eng 
land,  35 ;  in  the  Middle  States, 
35-36;  slavery  in  England,  38; 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  40; 


early  objections  to,  51-52;  as 
affected  by  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase  Treaty,  78-79;  the  effect 
of,  on  the  South,  117-118;  with 
respect  to  the  tariff,  121-122: 
attacked  as  an  evil,  170;  with 
respect  to  the  Constitution, 
195;  in  politics,  217;  the  de 
fense  of,  by  J.  C.  Calhoun,  346- 
348;  the  comment  of  J.  Q. 
Adams  on,  353-354 ;  remarks  of 
J.  R.  Giddings  on,  355-356, 
358-359;  comment  of  A.  Lin 
coln  on,  361-362;  remarks  of 
B.  F.  Wade  on,  365-367 

Slavers,  22 

Slaves,  brought  to  the  West  In 
dies,  23;  source  of,  24-25; 
hardships  of,  25-26;  the  en 
lightenment  of,  among  the  Lat 
ins,  26 ;  able  to  read  and 
write,  42-43;  well-dressed,  43; 
slaves  in  good  circumstances, 
44;  slaves  in  higher  pursuits, 
44-45;  relation  with  poor 
whites,  45-46 ;  sold  South,  103- 
104,  105;  control  of,  106;  the 
care  of,  107;  the  punishment 
of,  108;  in  towns,  114-115;  re 
lations  of,  with  free  Negroes, 
133-134 

Smalls,  Robert,  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  251 

Smart,  Brinay,  an  inventor,  296 

Smilie,  of  Pennsylvania,  the  ef 
fort  of,  against  the  slave  trade, 
81 

Smith,  Gerrit,  the  antislavery  ef 
forts  of,  185-186 

Smith,  James,  an  inventor,  296 

Smith,  James  McCune,  a  Negro 
physician  in  New  York,  145; 
letter  of  G.  Smith  to,  186 

Smith,  R.  L.,  a  business  man,  292 

Smith,  Stephen,  a  lumber  mer 
chant,  136 

Social  relations  of  Negroes  and 
whites,  111,  116 

Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts, 
39 

Soldiers,    Negro,    in    the    World 


390 


Index 


War,  314-325;  restriction  of,  in 
the  service,  314-315;  assign 
ment  of,  to  labor  divisions, 
315-316;  the  abuse  of,  315-316; 
the  record  of,  325 

Somerset  decision,  38 

Songhay,  the  empire,  of  11-12 

Soni  Ali,  11 

South,  the  situation  in,  after  the 
reaction,  84-85;  affected  by 
slavery,  117-119;  the  last  stand 
of,  217-218;  under  martial  law, 
247 ;  the  exodus  of  Negroes 
from,  a  calamity,  312-313;  rad 
ical  reaction  in,  after  the 
World  War,  339 

South  Carolina,  the  reopening  of 
the  slave  trade  by,  80-81;  se 
cession  of,  217 ;  peonage  in, 
270 

Southern  matron,  the  appeal  of 
a,  351-352 

Southern  States,  the  adoption  of 
different  plans  by,  247-248 

Spain,  African  slaves  in,  18,  19 

Spingarn,  J.  E.,  a  friend  of  the 
oppressed,  278 

State,  limitations  on  a,  119-120 

Statistics  on  free  Negroes,  124- 
126;  on  the  progress  of,  138- 
140,  281-283;  on  the  Negro 
Church,  284-285 

Stebbins,  Charles  B.,  an  aboli 
tionist,  177 

Stiles,  Ezra,  interest  of,  in  free 
dom,  54 

Still,  William,  an  agent  of  the 
Underground  Railroad,  143 

Stone,  Daniel,  an  opponent  of 
slavery,  215 

Stone,  Lucy,  an  abolitionist,  176 

Storey,  Moorfield,  a  friend  of  the 
oppressed,  278 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  the  writ 
ings  of,  152 

Stringent  measures  in  the  South, 
94-95 

Study  of  the  Negro,  the,  under 
taken,  341-342 

Sudan,  the  empires  of,  7 

Suffolk,  fugitive  slaves  in,  226 

Sugar  industry  and  slavery,  84 

Sumner,  Charles,  opinion  of,  on 


the  mutiny  of  the  Creole  slaves, 
210;  reconstruction  ideas  of, 
242;  interest  of,  in  the  f reed- 
men,  245;  on  equality  before 
the  law,  356-358 

Suttle,   Charles   F.,   claimant  of 
Anthony  Burns,  142 

Talmadge,    James,    effort    of,    to 

prevent    slavery    in    Missouri, 

118 

Tanner,  H.  0.,  a  renowned  paint 
er,  299-300;  paintings  of,  299- 

300;  prizes  of,  299-300 
Tappan,  Arthur,  an  abolitionist, 

185;  a  reward  offered  for,  203 
Tappan,   Lewis,   an    abolitionist, 

171,  185 

Tariff  and  slavery,   121-122;  op 
position  to  the  tariff,  122 
Tarboro,   Negro   insurrection   at, 

92 
Taxation  during  the  Civil  War, 

237 
Tennessee,  failure  of,  to  prohibit 

the  teaching  of  Negroes,  96 
Tennessee,  the  reconstruction  of, 

241 

Ten  per  cent  governments,  240 
Terrell,   Frank    J.,   an   inventor, 

294 

Terrorism  in  the  South,  269 
Texas,  slavery  and,  200;   sought 

as    a    place    for    colonization, 

165;  the  claims  of,  213 
Thirteenth  Amendment,  238,  241 
Thompson,    A.    V.,    a    successful 

Negro  in  Ohio,  139 
Thompson,    George,    lecture    of, 

stopped  by  mob,  191 
Thompson,  the  imprisonment  of, 

188 
Tillman,   Benjamin,   a   leader   of 

the  poor  whites,  330 
Tilghman,  Richard,  the  escape  of 

the    slave    of,    with    a    white 

woman,  46 

Timbuctu,  the  city  of,  10 
Toleration  and  the  Negro,  55 
Topp,  Henry,  a  successful  Negro, 

135 
Torrey,  C.  T.,  imprisonment  of, 

188 


Index 


391 


Town  slaves,  114-115 

Traders,  slave,  19-20 

Trades  unions  and  the  Negro, 
273,  334-337 

Trinidad,  colonization  in,  164- 
165 

Troops,  Federal,  in  the  South, 
258;  the  withdrawal  of,  258- 
259 

Troops,  Negro,  the  use  of,  233- 
234;  the  status  of,  234;  the 
record  of,  234-236 

Trotter,  W.  M.,  a  leader  opposed 
to  Booker.  T.  Washington's  pol 
icies,  277;  the  humiliation  of, 
277 

Truth,  Sojourner,  an  antislavery 
lecturer,  179 

Tubman,  Harriett,  the  career  of, 
115;  a  promoter  of  the  Under 
ground  Railroad,  143 

Tucker,  Alpheus,  a  Negro  sur 
geon,  234 

Tupes,  Colonel,  praise  of,  for  Ne 
gro  soldiers,  321-322 

Turner,  Benjamin,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 ;  education  of, 
251 

Turner,  Franklin,  an  advocate  of 
colonization,  166 

Turner,  Bishop  H.  M.,  interest  of, 
in  col&nization,  268-269 

Turner,  Nat,  insurrection  of,  93- 
94 

Tuscaloosa  County,  the  indict 
ment  of  R.  G.  Williams  by,  203 

Tuskegee,  the  progress  of,  288- 
289 

Tyler,  Ralph,  a  war  correspon 
dent,  320 

Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  152,  217 
Underground    Railroad,    113-114, 

142-143,  152 
Union,  the  nature  of,    122,   218- 

219;   the  cause   of,   at  first  a 

failure,  156 

Union  Humane  Society,  156 
Usher,  Roland  G.,  interest  of,  in 

the  study  of  the  Negro,  342 
Unskilled  labor,  281 
Untoward  condition  of  the  freed- 


men,  260-261 ;  economic  situa 
tion,  261-262 
Unwilling  South,  the,  242-243 

Vagrancy  laws  of  the  South,  244 

Valladolid,  Juan  de,  19 

Van  Zandt,  John,  the  fine  of,  206 

Van  Buren,  attitude  of,  in  the 
L'Amistad  case,  210 

Vardaman,  J.  K.,  a  leader  of  the 
poor  whites,  330 

Varick,  James,  founder  of  the  A. 
M.  E.  Zion  Church,  77-78 

Varnum,  General,  enlistment  of 
Negroes  by,  62-63 

Vasa,  Gustavus,  13 

Vashon,  George  B.,  a  lawyer,  148 

Vermont,  the  fugitive  in,  206 

Vesey,  Denmark,  leader  of  an  in 
surrection,  93 

Vicksburg,  meeting  at,  to  check 
the  exodus  of  1879,  264 

Villard,  0.  G.,  grandson  of  Wil 
liam  Lloyd  Garrison,  278;  in 
terest  of,  in  the  study  of  the 
Negro,  342 

Virginia  and  Kentucky  Resolu 
tions,  the  bearing  of,  on  seces 
sion,  219 

Virginia,  miscegenation  in,  47-48 

Wade,   Benjamin  F.,  the  defiant 

unionist,    219;    attack    of,    on 

slavery,  365-367 
Wage   system   for  the   freedmen, 

262 
Wainrite,  Anne,  escape  of,  with 

a  negro  woman,  46 
Walker,  Madame  C.  J.,  a  business 

woman,  292 
Walker,  David,  appeal  of,  93,  95 ; 

connection    of,    with    the    Nat 

Turner  insurrection  questioned, 

94 

Walker,  John,  suffering  of,  188 
Wall,   0.   S.   B.,  a  Negro  officer, 

234 
Walls,    Josiah   T.,   a   member   of 

Congress,  249 
Ward,  Joseph,  the  opposition  of, 

to    the    enlistment    of    Negro 

troops,  59 


392 


Index 


Ward,  S.  R.,  a  minister  and  ora 
tor  of  power,  149,  151 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  the  pol 
icy  of,  274;  the  Atlanta  ad 
dress  of,  274-275;  ideas  of,  ac 
cepted,  275;  opposition  to,  276; 
the  results  of  the  work  of,  279 ; 
a  writer,  301 

Washington,  Bushrod,  a  promot 
er  of  colonization,  158 

Washington,  George,  order  of,  to 
stop  the  enlistment  of  Negro 
troops,  59 ;  revocation  of  the 
order,  61 ;  the  enlistment  of 
Negroes  by,  61 ;  interest  of,  in 
emancipation,  58 

Washington,  fugitive  slaves  in, 
226;  race  riot  in,  326-327;  a 
lynching,  327-328 

Watrum,  F.  P.,  a  missionary,  39 

Wayman,  Alexander  W.,  a  church 
man,  148 

W7ebb,  William,  an  advocate  of 
colonization  but  not  of  African 
deportation,  166 

WTebster,  Delia,  the  imprison 
ment  of,  188 

Webster,  Daniel,  the  evasive  po 
sition  of,  198-199;  opinion  of, 
on  the  Creole  slaves,  210 

Webster,  Samuel,  interest  of,  in 
freedom,  54 

Weld,  T.  F.,  an  antislavery  stu 
dent  at  Lane  Seminary,  184; 
an  abolitionist,  177 

Wesley,  Charles  H.,  interest  of, 
in  the  study  of  the  Negro,  342 

Wesley,  John,  opposition  of,  to 
slavery,  56 

WTest  Indies,  slaves  carried  to, 
23;  the  lot  of  slaves  in,  25,  26 

Wheatley,  Phyllis,  a  writer  of 
verse,  68,  301 

Wheeler,  John  H.,  the  escape  of 
the  slave  of,  205 

Whipper,  William,  the  agent  of 
the  Underground  Railroad,  143 

White,  George  H.,  a  member  of 
Congress,  249 

White,  J.  T.,  honorable  record 
of,  253 

Whitfield,  James  M.,  a  writor  of 


verse,  148 ;  an  advocate  of  colo 
nization,  166,  167 

Whittier,  John  G.,  the  antislav 
ery  writings  of,  185 

Whydahs,  24 

Wilberforce,  the  antislavery  ef 
forts  of,  165 

Wilcox,  Samuel  T.,  a  Negro  gro 
cer  in,  Cincinnati,  139 

WTilliams,  Francis,  the  scholar, 
29-30 

Williams,  G.  W.,  an  historian, 
301 

Williams,  John,  intelligent  slave 
of,  42 

Williams,  Peter,  a  churchman, 
148 

Williams,  Roger,  protest  of, 
against  slavery,  52 

Williams,  R.  G.,  the  indictment 
of,  in  Alabama,  203 

Williamsburg,  Virginia,  an  in 
surrection  of  slaves  in,  36 

Williamson,  Passmore,  efforts  of, 
to  obtain  the  freedom  of  Jane 
Johnson,  205 

Willis,  Joseph,  organizer  of  Bap 
tist  churches  in  Mississippi,  77 

Wilmot  Proviso,  the,  212 

Wilson,  Henry,  reconstruction 
ideas  of,  242 

Wilson,  Hiram,  a  worker  among 
Canadian  Negroes,  152 

Winslow,  Sydney  W.,  the  pur 
chaser  of  Matzeliger's  patent, 
293 

Wise,  Henry  A.,  the  defense  of 
slavery  by,  196-197 

Woods,  Granville  T.,  an  inventor, 
296-297 

Woods,  Lyates,  an  inventor,  297 

Woodson,  C.  G.,  founder  of  the 
Association  for  the  Study  of 
Negro  Life  and  History,  341 

Woolman,  John,  a  Friend  plead 
ing  the  cause  of  the  Negro,  56 

Work,  F.  W.,  a  musician,  298- 
299 

Work,  J.  W.,  a  musician,  298 

W^orld  War,  the  Negro  soldiers 
in,  305-328 

Wright,  Elizur,  an  abolitionist, 
171  :  an  instructor,  184 


Index 


393 


Wright,  Henry  C.,  an  abolition 
ist,  177 

Wright,  Theodore  S.,  letter  of 
Gerrit  Smith  to,  186 

Wythe,  George,  an  advocate  of 
freedom,  58 

Yorktown,  fugitive  slaves  in, 
226 


Young,  Colonel  Charles,  the  pro 
scription  of,  317-318 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associa 
tion,  the  work  of,  among  Ne 
groes,  286-287 

Young  Women's  Christian  Asso 
ciation,  the  work  of,  among 
Negroes,  287 

Zambezi,  the,  2 


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